Bev Hopkins: Polio stories - personal recollections of the polio epidemic of the 1940s and 1950s

This recollection was kindly contributed by Bev Hopkins (nee Jones), Dunedin.

January 1949: Dunedin Hospital Hawton Ward - had appendectomy, then measles. Isolation ward when polio diagnosed aged 8. Kew Convalescent Home, Crippled Children's Society.

When back home, almost a year later, parents set up a modest gym, which was a wire mesh bed base with timber frame and old spring aparatus. Parents had a special tin bath made for heated salt beach water bathing. Water collected in farm milk cans. Parents also massaged my leg daily with mixture of olive oil and eucalyptus.

Orthopaedic Surgeons 1949-2022:  Walden Fitzgerald, Mr Nesbit, Dr Aldred, Dr John Matheson, Dr Chris Birk

Disability: paralysed left leg, elbow crutches necessary since. Splint support necessary. Orthotic Department client since 1949.

Treatment: initially small pool, Physio Department, Dunedin; massage; leg spa bath; hot towels; interrupted faradism (damp pad shock to leg muscles); heated wax dip; sprung exercising equipment.