CONTINUING the story of Dr Ted Blomfield. As the story starts he is still practising in Pambula.
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There was no sealed road between the border and Batemans Bay, so Dr Ted had to rely on his car's dependability. He started with a Vauxhall but couldn't get the parts so switched to Chevrolets.
They were very tough cars, he said, and he rarely got into trouble but he always carried an axe and shovel in the boot – there were often trees across the road, he said.
When Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth were married he went to the local cinema to see the film of the wedding but was called out on an urgent case at Pambula just behind the hospital.
He'd never been there before and the room was only lit by a smoky lamp. What he could see was a man wobbling around with blood all over his head.
He started towards him when a voice from under the table cried: “He's not the patient – I'm the patient”. It appears the woman had poured a bottle of tomato sauce over the man's head.
In 1949 Dr Ted took over Dr Marshman's practice in Bega in Gipps Street. There were two other doctors in Bega, Dr McKee and Dr Ireland, as well as Dr Loftus in Candelo.
They worked at the Old Bega Hospital where the theatre was horrible. Ether cone masks were used for anaesthetics and the temperature in summer would rise so high in the theatre that there was a risk of patients convulsing from the ether anaesthetics.
This happened twice. The patients were saved, but only just, and the temperature taken at the time was 110 degrees Fahrenreit.
On theatre days the doctors would often work from 7.30am in the morning until 1.30am at night.
Dr Ted learnt a lot more surgical techniques from Dr McKee. “He was an excellent tutor and an excellent surgeon,” he said.
A story Dr Ted told Margaret Evans was that “Matron Bourke always wore gum boots in theatre. One day a hospital worker went berserk threatening everybody with an axe. The police were called and were hiding behind trees with revolvers drawn but little Matron Bourke just walked up to him and demanded, 'Now don't be so silly – give me the axe' She must have frightened him, because he meekly obeyed.”
More on Dr Blomfield next week.