HELP FOR THE CRIPPLED.

Shannon News, 26 September 1924, Page 3

HELP FOR THE CRIPPLED.

MIRAGIiErWORKING SURGEONS (By Wesley Spragg.) ! "And immediately his feet and ankle nones received strength." That • sentence out of a, Bible story has been i in my tears more or less, continuously j sincei "I returned" to my borne two , days ago;, lit appears that the man [Who is referred to had never walked, I but something happened, and he beJ ciame immediately and completely cured, for, 'he, leaping up, stood, j "walking and leaping." A .wonderful story which, taxes belief in these days—arid yet leave ept the "immediately '.' and substitute for it "months,"- say four; or, to include the "leaping"! (stage, allow ia, few more; and that is the history of scores of happenings at our, own doors. Not 'all of people lame from their birth, but quite a number iojf firiem, and, for the. rest, victims as pitiful; dhildnen ?iwhom paJjralysis has left With twisted, distorted, useless iJimbs and bodies. And, mind you t toe I modern miracles are as complete and wonderful as was the one wrought-by Peter and John—none the less wonderful because a surgeon and an interyal of time come ia between the beginning arid the completion o.f the c,ures.

This is the story Qf King George V. Hospital at Rptorua, and the wonderworking officer in charge, WheneverI go to Rotorua I, always try to spend an hour; with trie, surgeon, and his patients there, or, maybe, a portion of ii in his operating theatre' "among those -fascinating knives, and things that belong to it, and in his, cast room looking at plaster records of the miraclejS of operations performed. But the patients are the more interesting. The plaster cast shows the marvel of a deformed member made normal arid shapely in appearance—but the actual foot or leg, arm or spine, shows the life in the well-knit and flexible joint, v the strong well-placed elastic tendons and the developing muscles, and the kiddies show: their pride in what to tib.em> are new possessions an.d new powers. THREE MIRACLES. Take this case. .Boy, eleven years old—of good parentage—a. nice intelligent lad, but born with legs so shrivelled and useless that trie only thing to do with them was to; tuck them into' the smallest space and keep them out of the way. Eighteen months ago, when told by his father to show the doctor "the best he could do," this little fellow rolled across the rug in front of the fire and hoisted himself upon his hands with his body poised in the air arid his pitiful stems of legs* a negligible parcel of little sticks, folded closely together and balanced across- his shrunken buttock, -with head hanging downwards; and looking . bel£veen his arms he cheerfully sjaJuted! «hfe 4dootor. That( was the best he could do. Peter and John was wanted badly, or maybe, the right man gifted with power from, th e same source had come. Six weeks ago this boy's feet touched the ground, to be oised as feet, for the first time. On Sunday last he hurried, not gracefully,, but > very proudly, and I thought gratefully, across the lawn to show off his entirely new accomplishment of walking. During the preceding week this dear kiddie, who, until the miracle-worker took him in hand, was worse than legless, with the help of two" sticks and trusting to splints to keep his yet fragile bones from 1 snapping, walked from the hospital to. the sanatorium grounds and back-Hsay, two milesonly being carried over the dangerous crossings! Miracle? Surely! Hiere is another bairn. Evidently in anticipation, he is rapidly unlacing a stout serviceable pair of apparently ordinary-fitting boots. He has been in hospital for four months, and is just due to leave It. A'-shapely" foot is quickly bared. The beautifullyhenled scars showing where the long, clean incisions had been made on ankle and foot, and the tiny pink marks of the .stitches, like cleverlyspaced 'lace-holes, first attract attention, and then comes the real thing, the vigour of the little foot, not a piaster cqst, but a firm, yet flexible, bit oX living bone, ,tendon, sinew and muscle which will carry the weight of a healthy boy, and upon which he will yet walk "leaping"—and four [months ago that foot and its fellow were turned back from their angles, cramped and twisted out of semblance

of a foot, and all the walking. vti ai was done was upon the ankle jouht. 1 had previously seen, the casts oi tins boy's ieet as they.were just lour j months ago.. 1 no\v /saw the reconstructed loot. Was it a miracle? You may call it what you like. Peter anu ' John's job was not a bigger one. Given a Jew more months and 1 guess .their cure was scarcely a better lone. 1 was allowed tq examine the fain ankle joints and the newly-fixed tendons. One of these, had been length-1 ei»ed by sq much as_ would let uit j foot come straight by having spliceu i into it pieces which had been' taken I out in the shortening Qf the opposite j t-endon.' 4 tried the elasticity oif the foot.{ by pressing it hack yyitSx my hanu, j and the -resistance Wiys , " practically that of a normal one 1 ! 1 would like to tell of tlie case of a baby born with a severed ant afraid that is not the way to descnoc; it, but that was what was the matter) ft was. brought to the hospital. when a month old, and was operated upon by haying a piece of bone grafted into its spine. It is now 12 months old, and is learning tq~walk. Isn't n divine healingi? isn't that surgeon as useful and as. honoured as were those two men* who hejped the lame beggar in Jerusalem nearly .1900 yeais ago? ■' v '.

SPACE AT, KING. GEORGE HOSPITAL 1 am, sorry that space will not allow me to tell 'of the 6QQ children who have passed through this hospital since it was opened in 1920 to, deal •with such cases, qr pi the other 63 who at present enjoy the unremitting attention ot doctor and nurses, or oj their''dormitories,, siet anijong the thousands of daffodils on beautiful I Pukeroa Hill, overlooking Rotorua | and Mokoia, or of the schoolroom and its two excellent 'teachers, prqvided by the Education Department to keep the children abreast of their studies, or q! the Sunday school, their play, and their home j,ife in, a place whien is all in keeping with the gentle quality, the miraculous surgical ability, and tireless devotion of the unassuming superintending head.

And now 1 come to: my message. There are spare" tots "tor 50 more' cliildren at King .George V. Hospital, ana I want -\o say. ; t&at if any one belonging .to. me was deformed or. mis-shapen in /liiub or spine; o born so, or as the result of disease or ac'cideno, iiQ matter how bad or how, hopeless 1 or anybody else might thinjc their case t.Q it>e, I would move Heaven, and, if necessary, the cither place as well, to get tha,t sufferer under the care, if only "for examination, of one of the four or five specially trained aM qualified surgeons whose presence enriches this Dominion. After having seen the impossible which has beeSi done at King George'v I should noi let anyone t doctor, surgeon,, or otherwise, persuade me that the case was hopeless until one of these special men said so. They should at least see my patieni For me to stop short of that would, forme, be criminal, neglect and unpardonable cruelty. Auckland Public Hospital has such a surgeon; and for. the country south of Auckland tax and wide, the marvenous skill.of the. Government medical superintendent at King George VHospital, Rotorua, is available at the cost of the small Government fee, or as may be otherwise arranged, ana with almost limitless hope, especially for young children, deformed, crippled, or paralytic.