Evening star., 1934-03-19
Pelter watched these things with an

| Slowly. lHeH pain Srlppeu Illlu Suu-
denly DR.. Potaka was called again
and it was evident that an immediate
operation was necessary.
1t is doubtful if any operation was
ever performed under more trying cir
cumstances No table big enough to
serve as an operating table could be
squeezed through the narrow doors Of
the shack. Somebody remembered an
unfinished table in the library of the
science building and it was brought in
It had no top. A bundle of stretchers
buried under a drift in the center of
the camp was dug out, broken open
and thawed out over the stove in the
mess hall and laid over the frame
work Of the table.
To get sterile water, Dr. Earle B
Perkins of the biology staff went sew
eral hundred yards from the main
camp and collected bucket after bucket
of clean snow. This was melted on
the galley stove.
Dr. Potaka now plur ged into the
small mound Of medical stores, look
ing for this and that, ripping open
boxes breaking open packages, trying
to remember everything.
Byrd Called to Assist.
Admiral Byrd was called. He came
in to assist with the operation. He
had assisted DR.. Potaka a few days
ago when another man was operated
on for neck infection.
The stations for the operation were
assigned. Sterrett was the anesthetist.
DR.. Perkins, assistant professor of
biology at Rutgers, had attended med
ical school and he and DR.. Poulter
were to assist DR.. Potaka. Alton Wade
was in the operating room. ready to
run errands for whatever was needed.
Clay Bailey was in the generator
shack, abaft the radio shack, with two
power units running simultaneously SO
that if one failed the other could be
switched and light maintained during
the operation.
Morgan, geoloist, and William c.
Haines, meteorologist. stood by, carry
ing and melting clean snow.
The highly polished scalpels, forceps.
retractorS, haemostatS and scissors
were spread out on the plain table.
The sutures, in their vials. were ar
ranged on the narrow table in the
corner of the room that served as an
office. The tins of ether were in easy
reach. A 1,000-wltt light swung just
over the stretcher table. A wash basin
| that had been 81 CURED in the galley
until it shone vas placed near the
operating table
Just before the anestheSia was ad-
| miniStered, the fire in the stove was
extinguished. The temperature in the
room was first brought up to 80 de-
grees by a hot wood fire Because
ether was to be used, it was thought
a fire would be dangerous. The en-
bers were dumped into a pan and
carried out
| DR.. Potaka, Admiral Byrd, Sterrett
and DR.. Perkins stripped to their un-
derwear and put on sterile gowns and
caps and gloves that DR.. Potaka had
had packed just before he left New
Zealand in February.
Operate at 2:05 AM.
At 2:o5 o'clock in the morning the
anesthesia, a mixture of chloroform
and ether, was administered to the
patient. Sterrett sat on the edge of
a bunk, gently dripping the ether
over the gauze-covered cone.
As the vapor's soporifc influence
took hold, Pelter answered more drag
| gingly to the count-"24, 25, 26."
There was no answer to "27" Then
suddenly Pelter stirred and in true
Navy tradition said, lets cut out the
kidding. Doc. I can count. too. I'll
1of l1av, r l,no
| Then he went inert and the operation
| proceeded.
Admiral Byrd, on one side of the
operating table, holding the instru-
ments for the doctor, was a wonder
fully calm and steadying influence.
DR.. Perkins stood by to seize the in
struments that the surgeon called for,
| and DR.. Potaka, short and swarthy.
bent over the operating table, calling
for things Withsa very British de-
| cisivenesS. Outside in the radio room
Wade and Waite we're standing and
listening, waiting for whispered in
| structions, and in the crowded gen.
| orator building a few yards away
Bailey was watching the power units
to make sure they would not fail
1t was crowded in the room where
DR.. Potaka stood He had his back
almost against the stove Admiral
! Byrd, who stood across from him, was
backed against a bunk. The line for
drying clothes, that always runs over
any stove in the Polar regions, was
full, with bedraggled sock hanging
from it.
| Onerafion Consumes HourS
The operation dragged, because in
the end DR.. Potaka had to perform
all the things that trained assistants
usually perform for surgeons. There
were no neat rows of instruments, no
assistant to recognize and anticipate
which one would be called for. 1t
was AIS o'clock before the operation
was over, and in the wireless room
the temperature had gone down
steadily The men around the operat-
| ing table were beginning to shiver
before DR.. Potaka finally ordered the
| fire started again in the stove.
| Pelter was carefully placed in
bunk, and the first major operation
ever performed on the Antarctic con-
| tinent was over.
Admiral Byrd walked slowly across
the hard snow to the shack that serves
him as combination living quarters
and expedition headquarters. The
first aurora of the season was tanning
its pale curtains across the SLY.
Admiral Byrd said he had reason
to be thankful for the never-failing
respect for safety factors which had
compelled him to achieve the almost
impossible task Of having new medi-
cal officer brought to Little America
after the expedition had lost its own
surgeon. The British exploring ship
Discovery II brought DR.. Potaka
within 400 miles of Little America.
and Capt. English and the crew of
the Bear of Oakland risked a Win
ter's marooning in the pack ice of the
Ross Sea to bring him on to Little
| America.
| (Copyright 1934)