Interesting Whangarei medical museum

While some would rather forget hospital visits of years gone by, one man is making sure that the medical history of Whangarei is not forgotten.

Known affectionately as the Gas Man, John Swiney worked as an anaesthetist at the Whangarei Hospital for 25 years.

Also known as a bit of a hoarder he collected outdated medical paraphernalia and displayed it around the hospital for years. Having finally outgrown the hospital cottage, the medical museum has now found a new home at the Kiwi North Heritage Park.

Although surgical scissors and dental chairs may not bring back happy memories for everyone, Dr Swiney reckons the old anaesthetic equipment will put a smile of most people's faces.

With mechanical ventilators and glass bottles to hold the anaesthetic agents, the machines were simple and potentially lethal.

Anaesthetists of old had to be careful not to asphyxiate their patients by giving them a 100 per cent dose of nitrous oxide, Dr Swiney said.

Another interesting, if not scary, piece of medical equipment held at the museum is an iron lung donated by Viscount Nuffield in the late 1930s.

The iron lung was a cabinet respirator that helped people paralysed by polio to breathe.

"You had this machine doing your breathing, your head was stuck out the top, you couldn't imagine a worse fate," Dr Swiney said. "Everything you did, bowel functions and everything, had to be done by someone working through a rubber sleeve."

The medical museum also sports an original letter by Florence Nightingale, donated by the family of early Whangarei settler AH Reed.

Speaking of nurses, Dr Swiney has photos of all the matrons who ever walked the wards of Whangarei Hospital.

"I think most of the interest [in the museum] lies with the nurses who worked with this stuff. Doctors don't seem terribly interested," he said.

While still settling in and setting up at the heritage park, Dr Swiney hopes the museum will be ready to open to the public within a month or two.