A REMARKABLE OPERATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1065, 18 February 1913, Page 4

A REMARKABLE OPERATION.

Victor Cunningham, aged about i 9. smiled Brightly from bis bed on the. verandah of. the accident ward at the Auckland Hospital, .when members of the Hospital Board were given an explanation of the remarkable operation that saved his life some four or five weeks ago. The customary meeting of the Board in committee had just cbhclbdfed; and the case was considered sufficiently unique to interest them. They were told that Cunningham was admitted to the institution just before Christmas suffering from aggravated stoppage of the bowels of five days’ duration. Examination showed that the only hope for the saving of his life was the performing of the" hazardous operation of removing his intestines. This was done by a prominent member of the honorary staff. The intestines were removed, treated, and returned to the place from whence they came, with the assistance of 470 silver stitches. So grave were the fears entertained for his recovery that it was thought the patient would die on the operating table, whereon he lay for an hour and a half. But the following day he commenced to revive, and since then “he has never looked back” (to quote the words of Dr, Maguire, acting medical superintendent). On the second evening after the critical operation, while being removed to a side ward, the youth was bright enough to ask that he should be allowed to remain ia order to hear a concert that was in progress near by. Cunningham, who is a resident of Rocky Nook, is expected to be ready to leave the institution very shortly.