Diphtheria

Well it was in North Point, I guess it was probably in August maybe 42', diphtheria started to race through the camps and I still didn't have diphtheria but for some reason they were sending me out of the camp, out of North Point camp to the Bowen Road Military Hospital. That hospital was still operated by the British doctors, but under the control of the Japanese. And I was only in the, in the hospital about a weekend I believe, when I complained of a sore throat. And the doctor looked at me and then he ran and got a needle and gave me an injection apparently for diphtheria and it saved my life all right, but I was still very, very sick from the diphtheria. I , my arms and legs became paralysed my vision just about went, just about went blind, and it took me probably a month to get over that. And I had to learn to walk again and but the, my friend that I joined the army with, he was scheduled to go to Bowen Road Hospital the same day with me, but as we were being loaded into the trucks, a Jap guard gave me a shove and pushed me in and then he said, "No more, no more." And my friend that I joined up with didn't get to go. The next I heard from, about my friend, Deighton Aitken, he was buried outside the Bowen Road Hospital because apparently he must have succumbed to diphtheria, but I don't know.