My father Medwyn Hutson was a Medical Officer in the Second War. He served in Syria, where Australians were fighting the Vichy French, New Guinea and Borneo. In Borneo he was part of a mercy mission that flew in by flying boat to a POW camp in Kuching before the Japanese surrender. He found it a very emotional experience after the plane and river journey to encounter the deference and cooperation of the Japanese, and the overwhelming misery, problems and courage of the prisoners.

He always thought that his involvement in this mission was the highlight of his medical contribution to the army.

And on other matters. Those who have followed my cardiac adventures in the books or on the blog may be interested to know that I had “a turn” last week. I have a loop recorder in my chest which monitors my heart rate and sends a message to the cardiologist if anything goes wrong. It sent off a message to Sparksy and I was summoned to his rooms on Monday. The recording showed that I had flatlined for 10 seconds, a small blip, then another flat line of 3.6 seconds. No wonder I had felt like I was at death’s door! 24 hours later I had a pacemaker in my chest and 24 hours after that I was back home! And the best thing is the battery lasts for 12 years! That should see me out. But I’ll have to miss Flemington today. I’m not allowed to drive for two weeks.

Isn’t modern medicine amazing! Lest we forget.

4 comments