State Library of NSW
[Page 21]
the meta-tarsals & one toe was carried away. With Surgeon Todd as anaesthetist & S.B.S. Mullins as assistant, we cleaned up the wounds which were by now quite offensive, with hydrogen-peroxide, alcohol & iodine, removing metal where possible, & draining the wounds. The left foot was amputated at the transverse tarsal articulation, sufficient sound tissue having been obtained from the sole to make quite a satisfactory covering. The case took some time owing to the number & state of the wounds. A drainage tube was left in the stump, which healed quite quickly. The patient has since been pronounced convalescent. During the operation the German Surgeon was attending to the dressings of his fellow countrymen on the waist deck, where they were taken after operation. The sick berth attendant was overcome and had to be sent on deck for an hour to recover. All this added to our difficulties, seeing that 50 per cent of our staff was hors de combat.
We next had "C" taken to the sick bay for operation. Dr. Luther was anaesthetist & Dr. Todd assistant. This man besides having a hole in his left buttock & through the left palm, had various shell wounds all up the right leg, and a minute splinter had entered his right eye through the upper lid, carrying a minute fragment of the orbital bone into the eye & disintegrating that organ. I had hoped to be able to leave this case for a specialist in Colombo, but the eye became inflamed & swollen and a large amount of pus collected in the orbit, so that it was decided to remove the organ. On account of the antiquity of the service eye instruments it was impossible to remove the eye through the optic nerve, so I had
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