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David Sloan
arrived in Hobart as Surgeon on the
William Young in 1829. He was in Maitland by the early 1830's and in 1836
he attended a meeting in November of that year to thank
Pieter Laurenz Campbell for his duties as
Police Magistrate.
In 1840 David Sloan married Isabella Lydia Phillips at
her father's residence at
Bona Vista. Isabella's younger
sister Lydia married
Richard Ryther Steer Bowker in 1858.
In 1843 a post mortem was
performed by Dr. Sloan on the bodies of two aboriginal men
who had been killed in a battle near the old 'Black Swan' at
Campbell's Hill. One, from the Port Stephens tribe was
shot in the nose and the other from the Wollombi tribe was
knocked down with a waddie, speared through the thigh and
knee and then his head beaten with waddies by three or four
others. The Port Stephens man was removed from his shallow
grave where he had been wrapped in his blanket with a sheet
of bark laid under him with his broken waddie by his side,
so that a post mortem could be performed. Dr. Sloan later
testified at the inquest held at the
Northumberland Hotel
By January 1844
David Sloan was in financial difficulty and
insolvency proceedings ensued. He was allowed to
retain his furniture and wearing apparel although
there was no mention of his surgical instruments.
He may have been allowed to retain them as in May
1845 he performed a Lithotomy on a patient and the
following account was given in the Maitland Mercury:
'Dr. Sloane has performed this very delicate
operation on a ticket of leave holder, named
Brennan, who is now recovering rapidly under skilful
treatment he is receiving We believe this is the
first time that the operation of cutting for the
stone (The removal of kidney or bladder stones by
surgery) has been performed in the district'
The following months were perhaps not
so successful and Dr. Sloan had some difficult cases
to deal with. In June he attended Henry Incledon
Pilcher with
Dr. Beardmore after Pilcher suffered a stroke.
The two doctors consulted however were unable to
save Pilcher. In August he worked to save the life of John Bowman
a child who had been severely burned after his night dress caught fire.
Dr. Sloane had rushed to the house and applied the 'proper remedies'
without delay however the little boy died 18 hours later. It was found
that the fire had 'penetrated through the coats of the abdomen'
otherwise a fatal result was not anticipated.
In 1848 Dr.
Sloane with the assistance of Drs.
McCartney and
Liddell performed an operation on Mr. Ryan a bullock
driver in the employ of Mr. Pringle. Ryan had met
with an accident several months previously and his
thigh had been broken and unsuccessfully set by a
resident Doctor. He was sent to
Maitland Hospital in
May 1848 where several attempts were made by the
medical officers to set the leg without avail and it
was decided that to amputate the leg was the only
option. As the operation would have to be performed
rather high up on the thigh it was considered
desirable to do so with the aid of chloroform and a
small quantity was obtained from Sydney. On
the morning of the operation, Ryan was given the
chloroform however its effect was to 'make him
excited and nervous as if under the influence of
strong drink and he remained acutely sensible to the
prick of a pin and the operation was postponed. A
few days later however it was decided to proceed
with the operation without the aid of chloroform.
The operation was performed rapidly and skilfully however Ryan was
weakened after his long illness and the shock proved too great for him. He
never recovered from the state of exhaustion produced by the operation and
died a few days later
The
Chloroform left over after the operation on Ryan was
used when Dr. Sloan and Dr. McCartney
removed a tumour from the face of a four year
old boy who had arrived at Maitland Hospital
from Merriwa
A daughter, Lydia was born to David and Isabella in October 1841; son
John Flockhart was born in July 1845 and daughter Louisa Jane in
April 1847. Isabella Sloan died in 1848.
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