[gwenith]

Sister Kenny although an Australian nurse, made a big splash in the USA with her claims of being able to cure polio. She is credited with the birth of physiotherapy as a separate discipline. However she was never accepted here in Australia - here is a story investigating her life and her claims.

In the 1940's, a controversial bush nurse from Queensland rose to fame in America. 'Rewind' investigates whether she really had a cure for polio.

MICHAEL CATHCART: And so to Sister Elizabeth Kenny - a name that rings few bells these days but one that deeply divides those who do know her life and works. She came from an outback Queensland town with the fabulous name of Nobby and she was once voted the second-most-popular woman in the United States, after the first lady. Yet here, she was castigated by the medical profession, condemned by a royal commission and drummed out of the country. It's curious, isn't it, how two nations responded so differently to a woman who brought hope at a time of fear. Here's historian Michelle Arrow and the story of the controversial Sister Kenny.

MICHELLE ARROW, REWIND HISTORIAN: She was a household name in America during the 1940s. A self-trained Aussie bush nurse who travelled the world with a message of hope, claiming she could cure the incurable. Messiah or charlatan? The Americans decided - they loved her. But back home, we turned our backs on her and she called us blockheads.

MARY WESTBROOK, UNIVERSITY OF NSW: She's been described as a sort of cult leader. She was very charismatic, very forceful. I think she had a mission to do something about polio. It was something she felt quite passionately about.

MICHELLE ARROW: Sister Elizabeth Kenny's celebrity and notoriety were born from a global fear of a devastating disease. Polio was as terrifying as the bubonic plague of old, or of modern scourges like AIDS or SARS. It was a virus without a cure, attacking the nervous system and weakening the muscles. Most of its victims were children and it could paralyse them for life.

BETTY NEWELL, RETIRED PHYSIOLOGIST: And it was hysteria - there was general hysteria in the American population. And this woman came in as the perceived...the perceived saviour.

MICHELLE ARROW: Sister Kenny claimed she had the answer to polio, and Americans believed her. She won their ultimate accolade - a Hollywood film about her life told the way she wanted.

FOOTAGE FROM 'SISTER KENNY'

BETTY NEWELL: Sister Kenny's egotism was incredible. I think she...she really believed that she was the answer. And I think she actually believed her own propaganda to a huge degree.

MICHELLE ARROW: It was a long road to Hollywood stardom from the tiny Queensland town of Nobby, population 200. Only here does she remain an Australian celebrity in a little museum run by a faithful fan. At 89, Lorna Rickert's one of the few people left who knew Sister Kenny personally.

What are your memories of Sister Kenny? I mean, you've met her.

LORNA RICKERT, SISTER KENNY HOUSE: A determined lady, yes. She was right and she told people when she knew she was right. She proved that she had a good system and she, er...she used it.

MICHELLE ARROW: Sister Kenny's treatments were created in true outback style. With no formal training, she wanted to be a nurse, so she simply designed herself a uniform and started practising. Her first brush with polio came with a child in the bush and her version of the story is faithfully retold in the Hollywood film. Desperate to help the child, Kenny improvised, and to her surprise, the child recovered. She was on her way to being seen as a miracle worker. Here at Kenny House, Sister Kenny is remembered exactly as she would have wanted - as a brave woman who defied the doctors. I get the impression that she was incredibly self-assured and really adept at using the media to promote both her treatment and herself. This is where it gets hard to separate the myth from the reality. It's true that Sister Kenny had a treatment that offered hope to parents of stricken children. But what I want to know is did she really have an answer for the ravages of polio?

Full story here:-


http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rewind/txt/s1184925.htm

[purplemania]

from what I know of her, and of polio, she did make a difference in apply kinesiology techniques to the AFFECTS of polio. This is not the same as as cure, since the germ was not destroyed. As we all know now, polio is a latent germ that may raise its ugly head many years later. The patient does not contract the disease a second time, but shows symptoms after being in remission many years. The good thing about Sister Kenny was that she showed the importance of physical therapy on people who survived the initial infection.

[chris_at_lucas_RN]

Can't see why anyone would call her a charlatan since she didn't attempt to sell something she didn't have or that wasn't true. She relieved a lot of suffering, and she calmed a lot of frightened people.

I remember reading her biography--I must have been about 9 or 10. I thought she was wonderful but my mother, an RN trained in the 40's, kind of turned up her nose and suggested that "Sister Kenny" was something "less than."

Not much was known about polio then, people died, people were crippled, people were in horrible pain for long periods of time, and people were frightened. Who knows, if she had actually gone though nurse's training, maybe she would not have been free to think outside the box and come up with her therapy.

My hat was off to her--still is. (Don't tell Mom!)

[RNKITTY04]

The first day of rehab, we were shown a movie about Sister Kenny, I thought it was pretty interesting. My nursing instructor just praised her to no end. She basically used Sister Kenny as a role model for us and how we were to nurse the rehab patients. I didn't realize there are still questions about her practice.

[jad2]

Originally Posted by RNKITTY04

The first day of rehab, we were shown a movie about

Was this a black and white movie? It was made in the 40's or 50's... ?
I saw it on cable. Very interesting. I loved it.

[SharonH, RN]

Originally Posted by chris_at_lucas_RN

Who knows, if she had actually gone though nurse's training, maybe she would not have been free to think outside the box and come up with her therapy.

THAT is a very interesting point and probably true. It's also kind of sad when you think that the culture of both medicine and nursing discourages that type of independent thinking and action which could ultimately benefit the patient.