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Blantyre Folk

Alick Campbell

1938

A fourteen year old High Blantyre boy, Alick Campbell of Muir Street, is living in hope that one day his name will occupy a prominent place in the annals of medicine.

Alick is the first in the world to be experimented on by Dr Swanson of Glasgow Royal Infirmary in the testing of a new surgical apparatus which he intends to patent if the experiment proves successful.

A short time ago the boy was admitted to the Royal Infirmary with a fractures thigh following a road accident. In the ordinary course of events the lad would have required to remain in the institution for 14 or 15 weeks but being subject to experiment he was discharged within four days and is now at home.

When our representative called at the Campbell home during the week he found Alick going about with the aid of a pair of crutches. So far as the lad himself is concerned he was quite pleased to be able to go about at all as he had become quite reconciled to a long term of infirmary treatment.

Thanks to Dr Swanson the lad is “out and about.” The doctor is experimenting on the fracture and has fitted to the thigh a surgical appliance in the form of a steel plate. Attached to the plate are wires for holding it in place and a surgical plaster veils the fitment. Simple as it appears in form there is the guiding influence of genius behind it.

The success of the experiment depends entirely on how the limb will yield to treatment. In the case of a fractured thigh it is usual for a person to suffer from shortening of the leg, but if Dr Swanson’s experiment proves successful we believe that this defect will be remedied for all time.

The doctor is an authority on matters affecting the limbs and he has started writing a book on his latest appliance. He is confident that his experiment with young Campbell will be successful and will enable him to complete the chapters.

Alick has the assurance that his name will make world-wide history if he comes successfully through the test. He is more than delighted at the idea of one day seeing his name flourishing in the annals of medicine.

Ref. Blantyre Gazette. 28/5/1939. Page 1.

 

Wilma Bolton. 2006.

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