By Land and By Air

ORTHOPAEDIC ASSISTING

I did a great deal of work with Orthopaedics. Al- though I had done a lot of fractured hips and other fractures with Dr. Laidlaw, Dr. Cox and Dr. Putnam, my work greatly increased with Dr. John Bonnell who replaced hips, knees and sometimes shoulders along with repair of fractures. He was a most pleasant doctor to work with, but he diecfl at a very early age. Dr. John Bonnell brought in other surgeons to help - Dr. Shapter from Newfoundland, and others. They had their way of doing things but working with them was a change.

Dr. Barry Ling arrived after Dr. John Bonnell left. He was easy to work with, and seemed to have a great sense of making the right moves without effort. I worked with him for the next 20 years.

Dr. Ponsford was an English Orthopaedist who replaced hips in the method ofa former English doctor.

He was a man who followed a plan by the letter. Sterility was his great aim - no one entered or left the room after he started a hip or knee replacement. He had a slit in the door to pass in his seven separate pans. He sat during the opera— tion and expected the assistant to be on the ball at all times. Dr. Ponsford wrote to the doctors that he wanted me for all his hips and knees, which did not endear me to the medical profession, but he was a good teacher, as well as an excel- lent Surgeon. After Dr. Ponsford left we had a couple of others. One was Dr. McMichael who went to work in Saint John. He had his peculiar ways which were not always ap- preciated, but he kept the staff on their toes.

In my 45 years of doctoring, I cannot remember having a toe to toe argument with any ofthe hundreds of doctors I have worked with. I then worked with Dr. Profitt

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