I read his story in a small paperback called Australian War Heroes. Before the war McLaren was a vet and so knew how to operate albeit on animals. He removed his appendix using a shaving mirror and a razorblade while hiding from the Japanese in a swamp. He sewed up the wound using banana fibre. While recuperating, he had to escape from an enemy patrol. After the War he operated a plantation in Papua New Guinea and was killed when a tree fell on him during a rainstorm. He dodged all those bullets in the most trying of circumstances and lost his life almost by chance. An amazing man.
