Penrhyn Woman

4,600 Mile Flight to Aid Sick Penrhyn Woman

THREE members of the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, undertook a 4,600 mile mercy flight in July in a RNZAF Catalina.

They were Dr. T. A. Doran, Theatre Sister M. T. O’Keefe, and Fijian AMP Tom Uluilakeba. They flew to Penrhyn, in the Northern Cooks, to attend to a young woman who had developed dangerous complications after difficult childbirth.

The call for help was sent by radio from Penrhyn to Rarotonga and then to Wel lington. It was passed on to the Royal New Zealand Air Force at Laucala Bay, Fiji, and a Catalina flying-boat was made available. The need to seek help from Fiji arose from the recent closing of the United States Naval base at Pagopago, in Eastern Samoa.

Dr. Doran and his two assistants took with them full surgical equipment. Apia was reached the first day, Aitutaki on the following day and on the third day the aircraft flew the remaining 600 miles to Penrhyn.

They came down in the lagoon, about twelve miles from shore, and the medical party embarked in a launch with all their equipment. Half-way across the lagoon the engine failed and the rest of the journey was completed under sail.

The patient, a 26 years’ old woman, was found to be very ill. She should have had an operation a week before, but had reached hospital too late for primary surgical attention. She had been skil fully attended by the Assistant Medical Practitioner on Penrhyn, a young Cook

Islander named Tere Snowball, who graduated from the Central Medical School in Suva early last year, and who has been at Penrhyn since December There were few facilities for major surgery on the island but a table was pre pared by Sister O’Keefe and an operation was successfully carried out by Dr. Doran,

being administered by

AMP Uluilakeba. y When the party left the island the patient was much better, and it has since been reported by the AMP by radio that hei progress has been maintained.

Dr. M. Rose, who was Chief Medical Officer in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands for some time, recently ended a holiday in Europe by signing on as ship’s sur geon on the liner New Australia The ship, on her maiden yoyage, is due in Sydney in September with 1,500 migrants.