The Doctor Who Did Brain Surgery Over The Radio

And yes, the patient lived

Fort St. John is a community located in northeastern British Columbia. It is also a very old community.

Established in 1794 as a trading post, it is the oldest European-established settlement in present-day British Columbia.

For much of its history, it has also been relatively isolated and travel to and from it wasn’t always easy until the construction of the Alaska Highway during the Second World War.

Prior to that, if you did not live in Fort St. John and you had a medical emergency, you had better hope you could get to the community in time.

There was one story from Fort St. John that shows how doctors sometimes had to do the best they could given the distance from patients.

Dr. Garnet Kearney was a very good doctor, and had been educated at McGill University.

He arrived in Fort St. John in 1935, replacing Dr. Brown, who was the first doctor in Fort St. John.

Dr. Kearney was a big supporter of socialized medicine and during The Great Depression he often provided his medical services to patients free of charge.

In 1939, Gordon Stock, a 21-year-old man who lived in Watson Lake, about 900 kilometres away to the northwest.

He was suffering from delirium and in talking over the radio with Jack Baker, Stock’s employer, Dr. Kearney diagnosed him with a cyst on the brain.

There was no way that Dr. Kearney could get to Stock in time, and Stock needed emergency surgery.

So, Dr. Kearney did what he had to. He instructed, over the radio, how to relieve pressure on Stock’s brain. Baker, to his credit, performed the surgery despite having no medical experience.

The surgery was a success and Stock was able to make a complete recovery.

For his efforts in the community, Dr. Kearney Secondary School in Fort St. John is now named for the heroic doctor.