REMEMBER WHEN

A BOY, 5, was lucky to survive a horrific injury.

Doctors and nurses at the Southport General Hospital saved the life of “cherub-faced” Sandy Waites who “died” twice on the operating table after his jugular vein was severed.

His survival was hailed as nothing short of a miracle after a 10-day vigil.

Sandy, from Roseville, Sydney, was injured after falling through a plate-glass window.

His parents, Robert and Marie, had been out shopping when the accident occurred.

Quick thinking by his sister Melissa, then 15, saved the day after she applied pressure to his injury while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

The boy’s survival was credited to the six doctors who cared for him immediately after arriving at the hospital.

The operation lasted more than 2½ hours as the doctors worked to save his life.

The hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Graham Thompson, led the operating team and said Melissa’s quick thinking had made all the difference.

Sandy was pictured with his dad Robert on the Bulletin’s front page holding a furry hand puppet given to him by nurses in the intensive care ward.

Meanwhile, Labrador’s The Grand Hotel was sold to an east-coast chain of investors for $2.1 million.

The historic hotel’s new owners refused to reveal who the principal investors were but the Bulletin was told an expansion plan was worth about $1 million.

It was finally sold again and redeveloped in the early 1990s before the current version was built.