Search results for ""author cecil lowry""
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Frank Pantridge MC: Japanese Prisoner of War and Inventor of the Portable Defibrillator
Countless thousands of men and women around the world have good reason to be thankful that Frank Pantridge survived three and a half years of brutal Japanese captivity. Had he not, they too would in all probability have died too. Taken prisoner at the fall of Singapore in February 1942 Frank was forced to endure appalling deprivation. Conditions on the Burma railway were notorious, and the death rate was horrendous. On returning to Belfast in late 1945 Frank specialised in heart diseases. Convinced that the prompt application of electric shock after cardiac arrest could save lives he reasoned that ventricular defibrillation should be applied not just in hospitals but in the workplace, the home, the street or ambulance. His first portable' defibrillator was produced in 1965 and over the intervening years evolved into the compact units so prevalent today. The importance of Pantridge's invention was well demonstrated when US President Lyndon B Johnston's life was saved in 1972. This stirring biography reveals the full story of a remarkable man who survived against the odds to save countless lives.
£20.89
Pen & Sword Books Ltd No Mercy from the Japanese: A Survivor's Account of the Burma Railway and the Hellships 1942-1945
By the laws of statistics John Wyatt should not be here today to tell his story. He firmly believes that someone somewhere was looking after him during those four years. Examine the odds stacked against him and his readers will understand why he hold this view. During the conflict in Malaya and Singapore his regiment lost two thirds of its men. More than three hundred patients and staff in the Alexandra Military hospital were slaughtered by the Japanese - he was the only known survivor. Twenty six percent of British soldiers slaving on the Burma Railway died. More than fifty men out of around six hundred died aboard the Aaska Maru and the Hakasan Maru. Many more did not manage to survive the harshest Japanese winter of 1944/45, the coldest in Japan since record began. John's experiences make for the most compelling and graphic reading. The courage, endurance and resilience of men like him never ceases to amaze.
£12.99
