Kindness that saved a life
British man recalls the TB care he received at Waipukurau
As Roderick Swalwell lay in a hospital in Jarrow in the northeast of England, aged 93, he thought “I have many friends who know me, yet don’t know me”.
He reached out to a friend and fellow Freemason to help him piece together the story of his life.
Then he reached out still further — to Waipukurau, where he has never forgotten the care and treatment he received high on a hill overlooking the Tukituki River, at Pukeora Sanatorium, where he was treated for tuberculosis.
Rod had joined the Merchant Navy as a cabin boy, aged 16. He was quickly promoted to assistant steward and ended his maritime career as second cook aboard a British Merchant ship heading to Napier from the UK via the Panama Canal.
“I was just 21 and had no way of knowing it was to be my last voyage. Halfway across the Pacific Ocean I took ill and was confined to my cabin.
“When the ship docked in Napier an ambulance was waiting on the quayside. I was taken to Napier Hospital and put in a darkened room. I had contracted tuberculosis.
“I remember the hospital staff talking in whispers. I was in and out of consciousness and was told later I wasn’t expected to survive.”
Rod was transferred to Pukeora Sanatorium, a specialist TB treatment facility overlooking Waipukurau. He was to be there for more than a year.
“The prescription was fresh air and sunshine. Beds were pushed out onto the veranda every morning and we were taken in at the close of the day.
“The staff were very attentive and after three months I had improved and was allowed to walk unaided outside.
“At Waipukurau Hospital I was given an operation under local anaesthetic. It involved locating the phrenic nerve in the neck and crushing it. This isolated the diaphragm and helped rest the lungs.”
Rod steadily progressed and took a job sorting the patients’ post.
“Part of the treatment was a 1000yard daily walk, progressing up 6000 yards. The route was marked with posts every 1000 yards. This offered a recovery yardstick.
“The food was nutritional — three meals a day but no alcohol. Being enterprising, the odd bottle of sherry accompanied the walks in the woods.
“We played bowls with the local team and I remember on one occasion the whole green lifted up and settled back down and not a ball moved. I was amazed to have experienced my first earthquake. The locals didn’t bat an eyelid.
“One nurse in particular I took a shine to. Hera Te Huia Halbert was very kind and we became close friends. Before going home, I spent a month with her family. They treated me very well, but I was told by the authorities that I must go to Auckland, to the ship’s agent, or the police would be informed. I was now classed as a DBS (Distressed British Seaman). I said fond farewells to the hospital staff and Huia’s family.
“I was placed in a Seaman’s Hostel in Auckland awaiting a ship home, but no captain was willing to take me due to the fear of TB. It was decided I would be flown home.
“I was informed on the Monday that I was leaving the next day. I quickly went to the post office and sent a telegram to my family in the UK. The telegram read ‘leaving Tuesday am arrive home Friday pm’.
“I look back fondly to my time in Waipukurau all those years ago — the medical staff and local people who treated me so well as a young man in a foreign land.”