9,000 Mi., 7 Min.

Blue-eyed, sailor-suited Kelvin Arthur Rodgers, Australian 3-year-old, left a freighter at a New York dock last week for the last lap of a 9,000-mile voyage of life & death. Frisky, unconcerned, he carried in his right lung a 3-in. packing nail which he had gulped down 18 months ago. Unless it came out, Australian doctors agreed, Baby Rodgers' days were numbered. Twice they attempted to remove the nail without a Chevalier Jackson bronchoscope. Both attempts failing, they wrote to Dr. Jackson. He told them to send the child to Philadelphia, that the nail would be removed gratis. Soon Kelvin Arthur Rodgers and his pleasant young mother, wife of a $20-a-week mechanic, were on their way (TIME, June 1).

The American Pioneer Line provided free passage for child and mother. Philanthropist Sir Charles Conibere of Melbourne put up the cash for incidental expenses on the 106-day round trip. Schoolchildren chipped in. The U. S. waived immigration restrictions. Surrounded by reporters, Baby Rodgers arrived in Manhattan, pronounced the U. S. "okey-dokey," was whisked off by the Y. W. C. A. to Philadelphia where, in the strict privacy of Dr. Jackson's operating room, the nail was withdrawn from his lung in seven minutes.

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