World's Most Expensive

Coffee Bean

IT cost Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bannigan of Wau, New Guinea, £1,200, in May, to have one small coffee-bean extracted from the throat of their son Murray.

Bannigan Junior had inhaled the bean into his bronchial tubes, while playing on the Wau coffee plantation where his father was repairing a truck. He was rushed to Wau hospital but there was, of course, no bronchoscope there. Mr. Ban nigan borrowed a jeep to drive to Lae, but the jeep overturned and he himself was injured. Then he was able to charter a plane to fly his son to Lae, taking along with him a bottle of oxygen used in weld ing, and a mask obtained from the Wau hospital. Lae Hospital could not help either. A Qantas Dakota was chartered and landed the Bannigans in Townsville that same night. But there was no ear, nose and throat specialist in Townsville and no bronchoscope. So the next morn ing the Bannigans chartered more planes and finally reached Brisbane at 9.40 a.m.

The bean was successfully removed an hour later.

The whole episode took less than 24 hours but it cost the Bannigans their en tire savings. They expressed themselves well satisfied in that their young son’s life was saved.

Their story interested the good people of Brisbane, however, and the Brisbane “Courier Mail’’ launched a bob-in fund and six Brisbane motor cycle clubs held a gala day and donated £2O to the Coffee bean Boy.

Maybe New Guinea residents, to whom the Bannigans are well known, would also like to help?