33. A Medical orderly who showed that he had been well trained

Paul Quinlivan’s Snapshots

BMedical orderlies were trained in many different centres and, since the anti-yaws campaign had caused everyone to believe in the wondrous effectiveness of ‘a shoot’, an essential part of that training was the proper preparations for injections. This is a passage from the Recommendation for Awards which I made in 1954:

BUNAT of MOIM, Sepik, Native Medical Orderly. This medical orderly, after being axed in the forehead and hit about the head with pieces of wood, carefully boiled his syringe and meticulously followed all instructions in giving the proper treatment to Cadet Patrol Officer Harris and Police Constable Kombo when the initial stages of the attack were repulsed. He stood by continuously throughout the whole attack, tending his charges. He did this so well that Kombo is alive and well today and Harris who (apart from multiple ghastly wounds) had his brain exposed, lived, without pain, from seven o’clock when that particular wound was inflicted, until 4.40 p.m. I know of no award which properly seems to fit such devotion to duty. It used to be the Albert Medal but I think this is now defunct. Others, with more knowledge than I, should know.