BACK FROM THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 15 May 1919, Page 19

BACK FROM THE WAR

RETURN .OF CATHOLIC DOCTORS. Colonel E. J. O’Neill, C.M.G., D. 5.0., readied Dunedin by last-Friday night’s express, and found the station and environs crowded by citizens eager to wel- , come him back from the four and a-half years’ service, for which he had conferred upon him the honorable titles now affixed to his name. The Mayor (Mr. Begg) was present, with Colonel Cowie Nicholls, O.C. Otago District, the leading medical men, the Very Rev. Father Coffey, Fathers P. J. and D. O’Neill (brothers of Colonel O’Neill), a number of medical students, and a company of the B Battery, of which Colonel O’Neill was long medical officer. Hearty cheers were given as the colonel appeared, and an address of welcome was delivered by the Mayor. After returning thanks briefly. Colonel O’Neill and Mrs O’Neill were escorted to a carriage drawn by a four-horse team of battery horses, with four outriders, and proceeded through a cheering crowd to their home in High Street. The colonel left here in October, 1914, with the Main Body, with the rank of major, in charge of a section of the Field Ambulance. In 1915, on Gallipoli, he was created lieutenant-colonel, and took charge of the Ambulance Division. Later, in France, he had command of one of the stationary hospitals, and when the war ended was the O.C. in the Walton-on-Thames Hospital. He received the D.S.O. for work at the Gallipoli landing, and the C.M.G. in January of this year. In the course of a short interview with an Eveninn Star representative, Colonel O’Neill narrated a few facts relating for the most part to the almost revolutionary improvement in the surgical treatment •of wounded men which took place in the last two and a-half years of the war. Early experiences showed the necessity of combating sepsis and shock at the very outset, and methods of speedy transport and early treatment proved wonderfully successful. At every regimental aid post there was full equipment for the warming of patients, a first essential with shock ; and even transfusion was effected at these advanced stations where necessary. From every regiment men were asked to volunteer for “donors,” which was the title given those who opened their veins for the wounded. Special privileges in the way of leave were their reward. A substitute for transfusion, sent ’up to the front line in sterile containers, was an infusion of gum. “Outstanding work,” said the colonel, “that no officer can assess at too high value was that of the stretcherbearers. The popular idea is, or was, that low category men were good enough for this work. But the fact is that for stretcher-bearers we wanted the best men, and we got the best men. In their work these men were constantly exposed to shell fire and gas, and had to take more risks than the combatants during long “carries.” These men would go on and on until they dropped. They were a splendid t} T pe —both regimental and field ambulance.” Equally enthusiastic was he of the work of the nursing sisters in the stationary hospitals, sometimes under shell fire, when the wounded were coming in fastest, exposed to the necessity of shifting quarters into the shelter of . forests, and dealing all the time with constant casualties, they were all “real men” in their devotion to duty and renewal of energy without rest. Speaking of inoculation for influenza, th* colonel said he was inclined to .look, upon it with favor, from the results he had seen obtained in England. The facts he noted in regard to his own unit were that with inoculation the incidence of influenza was small, and among those who took it the complications were fewer in number. In conclusion, Dr. O’Neill stated that the exigencies of war had created in a few years immense o *

#■ -m: '*p. A r :q' f " I possibilities in the field, of reconstructive surgery, and the restoration of function after injury. %%■. \ I vS! CAPTAIN P. A. ARDAGH, M.C., D.S.O. \ ; Captain : P. A, Ardagh, ; M.C., D.S.O. 1 ,- returns to New Zealand by the Arawa," which is expected to arrive in Lyttelton to-day (Thursday). ■lt now" transpires that the doctor referred to in the following paragraph, which appeared; in the New Zealand papers of last October, and which,. under the heading of A Medical Hero,” was .sent:out by the-official war correspondent, is Captain P. A. Ardagh, M.C., D. 5.0., >of Carlton Street, Merivale, 1 Christchurch, and who intends resuming ;his practice;about the' end of this- month. For his action'., hereunder mentioned, /Dr.; Ardaghr was strongly - recommended for the VC. . by, Majors-General Russell, and keen disappointment was felt by The general ' and bis fellow-officers and men when it, was not awarded. - Instead, he 'received the, D.S.O. ; “In most- of -this fighting both officers and men did so well that it was difficult to single any individuals for special awards, but there is one moving incident that stands out in bold relief—the modest hero being a medical officer attached to an Auckland battalion. Ho, was dressing the wounded in The open -while the battle was proceeding. Owing to the exigencies. 1 of the situation, there was .no better place available for his 1 regimental•; aid post, and with enemy shells bursting over the position he gallantly, continued his merciful work. Casualties were many,' add-das' the medical officers of adjoining units had been unable to get, up, he had for 36 hours to dress .the, wounded men of three battalions as they ' ; streamed- lF in -O to him. i? Some among the wounded there were killed, and others wounded again while awaiting his aid. One shell blew a wounded .man to-, pieces, bespattering the doctor’s uniform : but, to. all appearances outwardly calm, be went on dressing the wounded. In the trench close beside him a salvo blew a man’s head off while he was dressing a wounded soldier, and he himself was badly shaken. Even this didn’t deter him, and English, Scottish, New Zealand, and German wounded continued to claim his attention. He organised stretcher parties, and had the severe cases carried down to a deep German dug-out in the vicinity. His own escapes were miraculous,.- for he worked continuously in grave danger without sleep for a .day and two milts.”