WAR EPILEPTIC IS DRIVEN FROM N.Z.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3791, 12 May 1928, Page 1

WAR EPILEPTIC IS DRIVEN FROM N.Z.

SPENDS DAY'S IN FIELD AFTER FIT. N.S. HOSPITAL CASE. We have received the following newspaper cutting taken from a Sydney daily newspaper by an exFoxton resident now in Sydney: — Because, he says, the New Zealand authorities threatened to place him in an asylum, Kenneth Douglas Cameron, a bricklayer, now in the Royal North Shore Hospital, had to leave his wife and children and come to Australia.

An epileptic, he was brought to the institution on Saturday after he had taken a fit. It took seven doctors to hold him down. He declares that the authorities in New Zealand were afraid that he might take a fit and murder his family.

“My God,’’ he sobbed, “imagine doing that!” In the presence of Royal North Shore Hospital officials yesterday, Cameron said that he always knew when a fit was coming on him. If he were working on a job situated in an outlying suburb he would drop his trowel and run away in maniacal fury to the nearest paddock, where he would lie for three days, starving himself the fit worked off! STRAPPED DOWfN. He had a fit, perhaps, once in 12 months. The last occurred 20 months ago. Wjien he became conscious on Saturday he pleaded with the doctors to'allow him to remain under their care. A New Zealander by birth, he was struck by a shell in France, and has since been subject to epilepsy. All day Sunday, at his own request, Cameron remained strapped down, by his legs and arms, to his bed. In addition, a strong tarpaulin cover was drawn over him, a customary precaution in cases of this nature. It is thought that Cameron will he discharged in a day or two. Royal North Shore is prepared to stand by him and help him in ovei \ way that it can.”