OPERATION AT SEA

Shannon News, 20 April 1926, Page 4

OPERATION AT SEA

XOUNG. OTAGO DOCTOR'S FEAT. SAVES LIFE OF SHIP'S COOK. fn the perfectly-appointed operating theatre and under the ali-revcai-ing rays of powerful electric lights the performance of an operation for appendicitis, though marvellous to the layman, is a comparatively simple matter to the surgeon, but to And oneself confronted by a very slcK man suffering from appendicitis on Loard a tossing .ship 1000 miles from land and to be compelled to operate /immediately, using a hastily improvised instrument, is a much more difficult and pennrbing problem. Add to these unfavourable circumstances the comparative inexperience of a ship's doctor of i!3 summers, and it is not difficult to imagine a situation fraught with difficulties and dangers from which the strongest would quickly shrink. ' It was in just such a predicament that Dr. Walton H. Bremner, of Dunedin, ship's surgeon on the Port Bowcn ,en route to Loudon, found himself recently. * Undaunted by the odds arrayed against him, this young doctor operated on a member of the ship's company for, appendicitis, and carried out the work with such dexterity and efficiency, despite crude instruments and a heavy swell, that his patient recovered without any prolonged illness. Dr. Bremner left Auckland on the Port Bowen on January 7 as ship's doctor, in which capacity he hoped to pay his way to London, where he intends taking up* post-graduate study in one of the hospitals in that city'. All went well on board until the assistant cook became., suddenly ill. The diagnosis showed him to be suffering from acute appendicitis, which made- an immediate operation imperative if the 'sufferer's life were to be saved. On overhauling his surgical implements the doctor found that he v.as minus a pair of retractors, used to clamp against the sides of the incision to hold it open while <he appendix is removed. ..These-were constructed, by the shipls engineer after working all night on a pair of steel rods found in the junk metal locicer. They were sterilised by means of immersion in boiling water for several hours, and on the afternoon following th c cook's sudden illness everything was in readiness. With the slyp ploughing through the long swells about a week's sail from Panama, and the thermometer in thy cabin registering 108 deg. Dr. Bremner prepared to undertake his task. Me called to his assistance Miss Eugenie CJiroulilHM. ;i graduate nurse and Miss Elizabeth Burnett, j student nurse, and wit.li the help of the i hiew steward and chief officer the opera i ion was per for mod in 4<> minutes. The courage and rcs'onrcefullKfcS of this youn;, graduate certainly saved thc life of a ship's cook, who i.-; now quite well and extremely grateful to his youthful saviour. ' Dr.. Bremner is an old Otago boy, and is the son of the late Mr. Bremner, of the firm f>( Milne and Bremner, in this city. He graduated from the Otago University, doing further work in the Christchurch Hospital before starting f,or.r England, v His feat is no moan one, and none will recognise the .merit of his performance more readily than, inern'oors of the profession to which he belongs.