THE HEALING KNIFE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 67, 4 October 1940, Page 40

THE HEALING KNIFE

A Glimpse Into The Past of A Leading Surgeon

HE year is 1917, and the scene the city of Astrakhan, in Russia, during the Revolution, In possession of Astrakhan are one hundred thousand men of the Red Army, and on the outskirts of the city ten thousand White Russians are trying to dislodge them. Night has come and all is quiet. In the White Russian trenches two 17-year-old lads are sitting watching the enemy lines for any movement. They are Lieutenant Géorge Sava and his friend Sergei. It is almost time to go over. Nobody seems to know what is going to happen. Ten thousand men to take a city that has been a Red base for a year? Absolute murder! One young lad speaks to the other, "I wish something would happen to break this monotony. To think I was studying to become a doctor! My job should be to help men live."

An order from the Colonel comes along the lines to Lieutenant Sava; the men are to go "over the top" in ten minutes. So, ten thousand men of the White Army attack Astrakhan. There is hand-to-hand fighting then suddenly the Bolsheviks counterattack; the small force of the White Army is entangled; is overwhelmed by the numbers of the enemy. Lieutenant Sava is ordered to fall back at once. His company retires to a village on the outskirts of Astrakhan, where those who are left take shelter. Men are dying in every part of the village. The few available: doctors and nurses watch the darkness of another night coming on and realise that only a small percentage of the sick and dying will be able to receive attention. Sava, having brought his Company back to safety, is searching everywhere for his friend

Sergei. A young soldier informs him that Sergei is wounded and lying half-a-mile away from the village. Sava insists on going back for him. Under cover of the approaching darkness he finds his way through the retreating forces, and at last discovers Sergei, unconscious and very ill. He brings him back to the village and places him gently on a stretcher. There are no doctors available, but he calls a nurse who is desperately trying to do all she can to help the wounded, and she tells Sava that the wounded man has a bullet in between two ribs; the pressure of it is killing him, soon he will take convulsions and die. The only way to save him is to operate and remove the bullet. Sava refuses to leave his friend to die. He determines to operate although he has never had any experience. He persuades the nurse to tell him what to do. She is loath to assist him but finally agrees. With his only instrument, a clasp knife, which he has sterilised in the fire, he proceeds to remove the bullet. With no disinfectant, with no anzsthetic, he kneels beside the dying boy and performs his first operation. Realising the immensity of his task, and also realising that should his hand

slip a fraction it would mean death to the patient, Sava steels himself, inserts the knife, levers it under the bullet, and gradually the long bullet is forced out. Sava has performed an operation, which is soon proved to be successful. His friend sleeps quietly. The relief of having completed the operation caused George Sava to collapse, but a few weeks later, when he was well on his way to recovery he began to plan his future-he would be a doctor, and save men-not kill them. He escaped from Russia and arrived in England still a boy, and absolutely penniless. To-day, only 23 years later, that same George Sava is one of England’s leading sur-geons-and in addition an author of some repute-but more to him than any of his present day successes is that first operation performed under almost impossible conditions -with his only instrument, a clasp knife. This is only one example of the gripping true stories of the world’s leading surgeons which are to be heard in the new ZB feature " Doctors Courageous," on Tuesdays at 9 pm