Nurse, pass me that meat hook ....
This amazing newspaper report in Nottingham Evening Post of 5 August 1927 of an operation at sea in harrowing conditions captured my attention (full transcription follows) and I wondered who this admirable young doctor was, as well as his able lady assistant. (Merchant navy crewmen are notoriously difficult to trace so I already knew the likelihood of of finding anything on the patient and the cook would be minimal.) British Newspapers Archive AMAZING OPERATION AT SEA. SURGEON'S MIDNIGHT FEAT. SCISSORS, SPOONS, CLOTHES PEGS, AND MEAT HOOKS. Details of a feat of surgery off Cape Horn, carried out under almost incredible conditions with scissors, a safety-pin, bent spoons, clothes-pegs and meat hooks implements, but ending in success were told to Mail reporter by the officers and crew of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line steamer Port Auckland, yesterday, as she moved into dock at Woolwich. The central figure is a young New Zealand su...