KENNY TREATMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 4, 5 July 1939, Page 9

KENNY TREATMENT

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

PARTIAL APPROVAL BY N.S.W. DOCTOR

SYDNEY, July 4.

A report has been received by the .'.State Ministry of Health from the medical superintendent of the Newcastle Public Hospital, Dr. K. Starr, -on. Sister Kenny's methods for , the treatment of infantile paralysis. Dr. Starr says that Sister Kenny's -methods cannot replace the orthodox practices, but their most favourable principles, he contends, should be incorporated in units for the treatment of infantile paralysis. ,He points out that Sister Kenny has made valuable contributions, first to knowledge relating to the causes of stiffness in paralysed muscles; secondly t(J its prevention and regarding the results so commonly seen of improper splinting; and thirdly to the equipment of those units—orthodox and unorthodox—which are dealing with infantile paralysis. On the other hand, he declares, Sister Kenny has made no fresh contribution to the treatment of the disease as it affects the spinal cord. . . Dr. Starr recommends that any Kenny clinic should function as a separate unit, as her status as a consultant has had a most adverse reaction on the consultant medical staff of the public hospital. Sister Elizabeth Kenny's treatment of infantile paralysis at the special clinic established at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, where her methods were tried out, and where Victorian nurses received special training, briefly 'is:—(1) The maintenance of a bright mental outlook in the patient; (2) maintenance of the impulses; (3) hydrotherapeutic remedial measures; (4) maintenance of blood circulation; (5) avoidance of the generally-accepted methods of immobilisation of the limbs. The joints and muscles are given exercise, but not to the point of fatigue, instead of being allowed to remain immobile. Sister Kenny aims to instil a spirit of optimism and will to recover, and therefore her nurses are specially selected for their cheerfulness and enthusiasm.