The Kiwi Medical Pioneer You Haven't Heard Of

Wednesday, 17 July 2024, 5:38 pm
Article: RNZ

There are countless remarkable people who have shaped the world around us whose names would be totally unfamiliar to us.

Wellington-based writer Mark Derby is trying to change that, with his latest book, Frontline Surgeon: New Zealand Medical Pioneer Douglas Jolly, dedicated to telling the story of a wartime surgeon from Cromwell who influenced the way hospitals and emergency rooms around the world treat their patients.

Derby told Emile Donovan that although Jolly was internationally recognised for his contributions to medical history he has remained almost unknown in New Zealand.

His research indicated that Jolly was a very engaging man who was loved by everyone who knew him, Derby said.

"He was born right at the beginning of the 20th century, so graduated from med school I think about 100 years ago exactly."

Jolly was born in Cromwell in 1904 and was the son of the local storekeeper.

It was big general store in the centre of the town which sold everything which meant that his father was a highly respected figure who played a crucial role in that community, Derby said.

Douglas Jolly went to Otago Boys' High School as a border and then decided to enter medical school.

Jolly decided to specialise in surgery and proved to be very skilled at it, Derby said.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Jolly was in Britain studying for specialist qualifications in surgery.

He then went to Spain and "was immediately placed in charge of a 12 person roving field hospital".

"That was a very senior and responsible position for a young and relatively inexperienced doctor to have, but this was wartime and they took what they could get."

Developing modern-day A&E

Jolly served through the Spanish Civil War and then went on to serve in World War II.

"He's thought ... to have carried out more operations on guys with injuries to the abdomen than anybody else in history."

Abdominal surgery was notoriously difficult at that time, Derby said.

"In World War I the surgeons were advised not to waste their time on people with gut shot wounds because they took three times as much time as other operations and the survivor rate was only a third as good."

Those types of injuries went to the bottom of the list and they were dosed with morphine and left to die quietly, Derby said.

But that was not Jolly's approach.

"He insisted on giving those patients, like all the others, the very best chance of survival that he could manage."

That involved treating them in the same way as previously but getting them on the operating table as quickly as possible, Derby said.

Derby said he spoke to many present-day surgeons and medical administrators who said that Jolly's work led to the organisation of accident and emergency departments in hospitals.

"The system that Jolly developed in Spain and wrote about in a book which was prepared for surgeons going into World War II, that has really influenced trauma medicine, emergency medicine, right down to the present day, worldwide really."

Jolly's character

Derby said when Jolly started at university he and all his family were devout church-going Presbyterians who were non-drinkers.

At university Jolly became involved with the student christian movement, but also got to know the family of a chaplain at the university.

"This sort of broadened his horizons, these people were very progressive, very very familiar with worldwide events and Jolly sort of lost his strong Christian faith I suppose but he retained the vestiges of it."

He remained a Christian Socialist to the end of his days, he said.

After working as a surgeon during World War II, Jolly led a much quieter life and did not return to New Zealand but stayed in Britain.

Derby said he may not have gained the recognition he deserved due to the fact that he was bi-polar.

This manifested itself at different times, he said.

"Sometimes it manifested itself to his advantage. During wartime he was known in Spain for being able to operate all day, all night and all the next day without a break. You can't do that if you're a normal person but if you're bi-polar and on a high, maybe you can."

But Derby said after the wars were over the depressive phase of his illness seemed to kick in and Jolly found he was unable to motivate himself to even complete his studies to become a fully fledged surgeon.

Not impressed by Ernest Hemingway

Jolly met the renowned writer Ernest Hemingway in Spain towards the end of the Spanish Civil War.

Hemingway was there as a journalist, but also got involved in the fighting, and Jolly had read and admired his books.

"But when he met the guy himself he thought he was a bit of a blustering bore and wasn't impressed.

"They were very very different characters. Jolly was a modest quiet amiable sort of guy and Ernest Hemingway took up a lot of space, in every sense I think."

Uncovering 'gold dust' documents

Jolly's family gave Derby unlimited access to Douglas Jolly's letters and photos.

Derby said it was amazing to be able to see Jolly's words in his own handwriting as well as what others had written to him.

"To see dozens maybe hundreds, I don't know, of photographs some of which he had taken, others he had collected in Spain, never published most of them."

Most of the material came from his stepdaughter and her daughter who had held onto his personal papers, Derby said.

It was New Zealand doctor David Lowe who is working in Sydney who managed to track down the treasure trove of Jolly's letters and photos.

Derby said Lowe who is also a medical researcher was advising him on the medical issues relating to the book.

"He tracked down this collection of papers, he didn't even know they were still in Australia, he tracked them down to the Isle of Wight which was their last known address and from there he was directed to Canberra which is where they ended up."

Lowe then drove from Sydney to Canberra to look at the papers.

"They said to him 'look take them back with you, you're here now, we'll put them in the back of the car'."

Derby found that a lot of them were hand-written, irreplaceable documents.

"I mean papers like that, photographs like that, that's just gold dust to a biographer."

Derby also got permission from the family to place the documents in the Hocken Library at Otago University so they can be used by future researchers.

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