INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1943, Page 4

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

SISTER KENNY TREATMENT MODIFIED APPLICATION IN CHRISTCHURCH. STORY OF DEVELOPMENT. The Sister Kenny treatment for infantile paralysis has been applied in Christchurch (states an exchange) “to a limited extent in cases which are considered particularly suitable.” Today the Kenny system is being taught in the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, and Minneapolis alone, according to a recent writer, is ideally equipped to cope with any outbreak (in the United States) of infantile paralysis. Sister Kenny and her trained staff are there, and last October a plan was under consideration to convert the huge Public Health Centre into the largest Elizabeth Kenny Clinic in the world. Between March, 1940, and early in 1942, Sister Kenny treated 54 poliomyelitis victims in the Minneapolis General Hospital. Of the first 2G cases, the official report by Dr. John F. Pohl, published in “The Journal of the American Medical Association” last April, says:—“These patients have all made a far more satisfactory recovery than they would have made by any previous known method. No deformities have occurred, in spite of complete omission of splinting.” The other 28 cases were admitted late in 1941, and Dr. Pohl said: “These cases will show even more remarkable recovery.” Meanwhile at I the Willard Parker Hospital in New J York, 71 patients were divided into I two groups. The first received the orthodox treatment; the second, the treatment founded on Sister Kenny’s principles. In “The Journal of the American Medical Association,” the doctors expressed themselves as “convinced that those who received the Kenny treatment are better off in comfort, freedom from atrophy and deformity, rapidity of recovery and possibly in extent of recovery.” TYPICAL EPIDEMICS. In August, 1942, Sister Kenny visited Little Rock, Arkansas, to put her treatment to the test of a typical local American epidemic. In a radical departure from hitherto accepted methods, the Australian wrapped her patients’ aching backs and limbs in woollen cloths wrung out in hot water. As soon as the pain subsided, she gave them passive exercise, and then, taught them to exercise their muscles by themselves. The reports from Little Rock were highly favourable. Not a cure for the disease, her method was considered the most effective yet devised to minimise deformities. “Continuous rigid splinting is not only on its way out; it is out,” said Dr. Philip Lewin, orthopaedic surgeon of North-western University Medical School and author of a standard text book on infantile paralysis. The swingover from the orthodox to the Kenny treatment is practically complete, Dr. P. M. Stimson, of Cornell University Medical College, considering that the use of the respirator is no longer called for “except for keeping a patient alive until he can get the Kenny treatment.” ORIGIN OF TREATMENT. Sister Kenny worked out her system during an epidemic in an Australian bush town 30 years ago. It took her a lifetime to win medical approval. But today she is teaching her methods to American doctors and nurses, and. is supported by the National Foundation, for Infantile Paralysis. The Australian nurse opposed the conservative method of treatment of keeping the limbs of the patients in splints for as long as three months. Her results were obtained by going directly contrary to the accepted teachings. Working near Clifton in 1910 she found a child desperately ill with a malady new to her. Studying the case closely, she felt that advice must be obtained from a competent physician. A telegram was sent to ,Dr. Aeneas John McDonnell, who resided in Toowoomba, more than 40 miles distant. Dr. McDonnell recognised the disease, and Sister Kenny was advised to use her “best observation and judgment.” Before long she found herself in the midst of a small epidemic of infantile paralysis: she used what she had water, heat, blankets, and her own hands. The children became more comfortable as the days passed and responded to her treatment.

NO LONGER CRIPPLED. The following year, when on leave in Toowoomba, she discussed these cases with Dr McDonnell. Incredulous when told that the victims were no longer ci’ippled, but entirely normal, he turned one of his own cases over to Sister Kenny. “You are in complete charge,” he said. “Now, show us what you did.” Before anyone could protest, she stripped the splints and bandages fiom the child's aching limbs. Then she called for boiling water and a heavy blanket and went to work. Eventually she encouraged the patient to try to move his limbs. A few weeks later he romped about as sturdily as ever before. During the last war, Sister Kenny was a nurse on army transports. In 1933 she established a clinic for the treatment of infantile paralysis at Townsville. But eventually she cams to grips with the majority of the medical men in Queensland, and in 1935 the latter secured a Royal Commission to compare her method of treatment with the customary one. The report, issued three years later, was “an inch thick, 300 pages long, and denunciatory all the way.” Rebuked at home, Sister Kenny went to London. There she was told that her method was “harmless but of improved value.” It was not until 1939 that opposition was overcome in Australia, and her treatment made available at all hospitals at the patients’ own request. , Later, she went to the United States. Though she had a battle at first, Sistei Kenny has since had a more sympathetic reception. It was admitted that her best results were obtained with patients brought to her within two weeks after falling ill. Since then she has lectured before the New York State Medical Society and other learned bodies, and, in December, 1941, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis formally recognised the value of her work.