Page 182 - WDT Winter 2018 japan

In the early days it would take a nursing
sister or doctor all day to travel in the
unbearably hot sun 100 miles to tend
to a seriously ill child or accident victim.
Today that same distance would take
only minutes by turboprop!

It wasn’t until 1917, when a tragic case
gained national attention, that the
urgent need for a flying doctor service
was realized. In the Kimberley, Western
Australia, a young stockman, Jimmy
Darcy, 29, fell from his horse, incurring
serious injuries. A nightmare ordeal
ensued to get him medical treatment.
It took 12 agonizing hours to transport
him just 45 miles away to a telegraph
station, where the postmaster, F.W.
Tuckett, had taken a first aid course. But
all that could be done for Darcy—be-
sides giving morphine for the pain--was
summoning, via telegraph service, Dr.
John Holland far away in Perth.

Over the next seven hours Dr. Holland,
with the help of the Perth telegraph
office, was able to diagnose a rup-
tured bladder and relay instructions
to postmaster Tuckett--2,000 miles
away--how to perform the emergency
surgery. And that was done with no
anesthetic, just morphine—and with a
pen-knife and razor! Although deemed
successful, complications later occurred,
and Dr. Holland journeyed to the patient
to provide further medical treatment.
Traveling ten exhausting days—via cat-

182 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018