PAINFUL EXPERIENCE FOR INJURED MAN

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5284, 21 December 1946, Page 5

PAINFUL EXPERIENCE FOR INJURED MAN

• • ( Press Assn.

CARRIED 25 MILES

PARTY'S HARD JOB IN BACK COUNTRY

r-By Telegraph— Copyright.)

• CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. Slogging throughtreacherous, rocky country, 'in the face of a wind that drov.e the stinging rain before it and flurries of snow, eight men performfcd an epic stretcher-bearing feat in the back country beyond Hammer, to bring an injured comrade to Queen Mary Hospital at Hanmer. The injured man was Frederick Hampton, single, employed on St.. James Station. He had broken a leg, suffered while breaking in horses on Ada Station, which lies beyond St. 'James. The weather was not promisingwhen the eight stretcher bearers set out from Ada Station with the patient at 8.30 a.m. yesterday. One man had' gone ahead on horseback to arrange for a relief party to come out from Hanmer, for- there was a long, grim trek ahead. They had no defined road to travel, only a pack track access to Ada Station. The road goes no further than St. James. There was Jialf an inch of snow tn top of Fowler's Pass, and the going was tough indeed, but long before they reached there the men were soaked to the skin. Hampton was afforded some protection by beii'.g wrapped in an oiled silk tent. Some times the men were able to carry the stretcher four at a time, but on other occasions the going was so rough that it took the whole eight to bear the burden. Fowler's Pass is 4250 feet high, and there was half an inch of snow at the summit when the party arrived there, with the worst of the hazardous trip hehind. Before they reached the summit of the pass the men made a brief stop at Stauley River ivhere a fire was lit. Apart from that there were no" stops for meals, the party carrying their own food "and snatehing a hite as they travelled. At Fowler's Hut on the Hanmer side of' the hottom of Fowler's Pass, the wom-out party from Ada Station found a relief party of 11 men from Hanmer, including Dr. R. F. Lainb, of the staff of Queen Mary Hospital, awaiting them. The relief party earried Hampton on to St. James where the injured man who had been earried 25 miles by stretcher, was placed in a motor truck and driven another 13 miles over a rough road, seldom used by motor transport to Hanmer Springs, where he was admitted to Queen Mary Hospital. This morning Hampton was brought by ambulance from Hanmer to Christchurch, being admitted to the Public Hospital at 12.45 p.m. His condition is satisfactory.