Sister Elizabeth Kenny (20 September 1880 – 30 November 1952) was a self-trained Australian bush nurse who developed an novel approach to treating polio. Though controversial at the time, as it went against immobilisation recommendations, her principles of muscle rehabilitation became the foundation of physical therapy or physiotherapy in such cases. Her method, promoted internationally while working in Australia, Europe and the United States, differed from the conventional one of placing affected limbs in plaster casts. Instead, she applied hot compresses, followed by passive movement of the areas to reduce what she called "spasm". Even an initially hostile medical community "had to acknowledge" that Sister Elizabeth Kenny's polio treatment helped thousands of children all over the world.
Her life story was told in a 1946 film, Sister Kenny, where she was portrayed by Rosalind Russell, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Early life Elizabeth Kenny was born in Warialda, New South Wales, on 20 September 1880, to the Australian-born Mary Kenny, née Moore, and Michael Kenny, a farmer from Ireland.
Called "Lisa" by her family, Kenny was home schooled by her mother, and only received a few years of formal education when living at Headington Hill, near Nobby.Cohn, V. (1975) Sister Kenny - The Woman Who Challenged The Doctors, The University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. p 26. She said in Who's Who in Australia she had attended St Ursulas College near Guyra, but this has never been verified.Cohn (1975) p. 27. At the age of 17, she broke her wrist in a fall from a horse. Her father took her to Aeneas McDonnell, a medical doctor in Toowoomba, where she remained during her convalescence. While there, Kenny studied McDonnell's anatomy books and model skeleton. This began a lifelong association with McDonnell, who became her mentor and advisor. Kenny later confirmed that she became interested in how muscles worked while convalescing from her accident.Kenny, E. and Ostenso, M. (1943) And They Shall Walk. New York: Dodd, Mead. p. 12. Instead of using a model skeleton, available for medical students only, she made her own. After her time with McDonnell, Kenny was certified by the Secretary of Public Instruction as a teacher of religious instruction and taught Sunday School in Rockfield. Having become a self-taught pianist, she listed herself as a "teacher of music" and did so a few hours a week.Alexander, W. (2012) Sister Elizabeth Kenny. Maverick Heroine of The Polio Treatment Controversy, N. American Edition including redacted text from 2003 CQU Press Ed, Greystone Press, San Luis Obispo CA. p. 51.
In 1907, at the age of 27, Kenny returned to Guyra, New South Wales, first living with her grandmother and then with her cousin Minnie Bell. Whilst living with her cousin she had success as a broker of agricultural sales between Guyra farmers and northern markets in Brisbane.Cohn (1975) p. 33. After that she worked in the kitchen in Scotia, a local midwife's cottage hospital and the local Dr. Harris gave her a letter of recommendation. With some savings from her brokerage work she paid a local tailor to make her a nurse's uniform. With that and the observations she had made at Scotia and under Dr Harris, she returned to Nobby to offer her services as a Medical and Surgical Nurse.Clifton Courier, Professional Notices, 4 November 1911, p. 3. State Library of Queensland (SLQ) MFS 0448.
During this period of her life she used the title "nurse" - common for both formally and informally trained nurses at the time - based on her experience and a letter of recommendation from Dr Harris, which served as a relevant credential before registration was required. Kenny earned the title Sister while nursing on transport ships that carried soldiers to and from Australia and England during the First World War.Alexander, W. (2003) Sister Elizabeth Kenny. Maverick Heroine of The Polio Treatment Controversy. CQU Press. In Britain and Commonwealth countries, Sister applies to senior more qualified nurse, one grade below "Matron"."Medicine: Sister Kenny Fights On". Time, 2 April 1945.
Work Kenny returned to Nobby during 1911 after spending time in Walcha assisting her cousin after the birth of her son.See interview with Alicent Woodward by Victor Cohn 3 December 1955. EKP-MHC 146.K.8.6F Upon her return to Nobby, Kenny advertised her services as a Medical and Surgical Nurse,Clifton Courier, 4 November 1911, p. 3. SLQ MFS 0448 reaching her patients on foot or by horseback or buggy. Many authors describe Kenny as working as a Bush Nurse, but this is not a term she applied to herself.See Chapter 2, Kenny, E. and Ostenso, M. (1943) And They Shall Walk. Minneapolis: Dodd, Mead & Company. In July 1912 she opened a cottage hospital at Clifton which she named St. Canice's, where she provided convalescent and midwifery services, describing herself as Nurse Kenny, Certificated Medical, Surgical, and Midwifery.Clifton Courier, 13 July 1912, p. 3. SLQ MFS 0448. Such cottage hospitals were typically modest - often a few rooms in a converted house - and were a common way for nurses to providing nursing care in rural areas where main hospitals were scarce;Such small private hospitals were common in Queensland and across Australia. The Queensland Heritage Register notes of private maternity and nursing hospitals that "every town of reasonable size had a number of these" (entry for Herries Private Hospital, Cairns, 602137). The Bundaberg Cottage Hospital, opened in 1881, was described as "a four room timber cottage, with a kitchen" (Arts Bundaberg, "Bundaberg Base Hospital Heritage Walk," https://www.artsbundaberg.com.au/files/sharedassets/arts/v/3/libraries/documents/heritage/base-hospital.pdf). In Tasmania, "many trained nurses opened their own small hospitals, sometimes just rooms in a private house" (Alison Alexander, "Hospitals," in The Companion to Tasmanian History, University of Tasmania, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/H/Hospitals.htm). for Clifton, the nearest main hospitals were Toowoomba and Warwick."Clifton Courier'', 1911, SLQ MFS 0448. Both Warwick and Toowoomba main hospitals were mentioned for receiving seriously injured patients from the Clifton area by ambulance. In the Clifton district, nurses such as Nurse Dawes and Nurse Pengelly operated private hospitals in the same period."Clifton Courier'', 1911, SLQ MFS 0448. Nurse Dawes advertised her private hospital in early 1911; while an injured person was reportedly taken to Nurse Pengelly's private hospital. Kenny opened St Canice's in July 1912.
At the time Kenny established St Canice's, Queensland was introducing new regulations governing nursing and private hospitals. Under the Queensland Health Act Amendment Act (1911), only a medical practitioner or registered nurse could register a private hospital, and a nurses' registration board was established with power to register qualified nurses. However, the Act contained a grandfather clause protecting nurses who held certificates of three years' training on 1 January 1912, and gave the Minister discretion to register nurses who had been employed in nursing during the three years preceding that date. Kenny had returned to Nobby during 1911 and advertised her services as a nurse, placing her within this protection. In addition, contemporary nursing journals noted that an amendment to the Act was before parliament to provide exemptions in remote districts where nurses might be unavailable. Historian Alexander Francis, writing in 1935, described the healthcare desert of rural Queensland: "In many places there was no doctor, no hospital, no chemist, no nurse, but a large cemetery".
In her 1943 autobiography she describes her first encounter with a patient who she treated for the disease that Dr McDonnell thought was infantile paralysis.Kenny and Ostenso (1943) pp. 15-32. The story was romanticized in the 1946 film Sister Kenny, featuring Rosalind Russell. In her autobiography Kenny wrote that she sought McDonnell's opinion. He wired back saying "treat them according to the symptoms as they present themselves." Sensing that their muscles were tight, she did what mothers around the world did: applied hot compresses made from woollen blankets to their legs. Kenny wrote that a little girl woke up much relieved and said, "Please, I want them rags that well my legs." Several children recovered with no serious after-effects. Recent scholarship has placed doubts on the veracity of Kenny's reporting of her first encounter with polio whilst working as a Nurse in Nobby or Clifton.Highley K (2015) Dancing in my dreams. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.Hildon A (2019) The woman who invented herself. PhD Thesis. Available from: http://repository.essex.ac.uk/24922/ Press reports from Australia in the 1930s quote Kenny as saying she developed her method while caring for meningitis patients on troopships during the First World War."Sister Kenny's Treatment For Infantile Paralysis". Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 5, no. 25. 1937. p. 3."Paralysis: A new system of treatment". Sydney Morning Herald. 16 February 1935. p. 15. Victor Cohn and Wade Alexander observed in their biographies of Kenny that she published several versions of the story during the early 1940s.Cohn (1975) Notes on Chapter 4, p. 274.Alexander (2003) pp. 26-27. Alexander claims the most dependable corroboration of Kenny's story is likely to be in a letter written in 1956 to Victor Cohn from the Toowoomba journalist T. Thompson,Alexander 2012 edition, pp. 55–58. but Cohn did not give the letter sufficient credence to cite it in his biography. Recent research concludes that Kenny most likely developed her therapeutic techniques while treating paralysis patients during the 1920s.Highley (2015) p. 79.Hildon (2019) pp. 210-227.
World War I
In May 1915 Kenny announced she was closing St Canice to join the War effort in Europe.“Gossip from Women’s Clubland”, Queensland Figaro, 29 May 1915, p. 14, Trove NLA She travelled at her own expense to London,“RMS Medina for London”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 June 1915, Trove NLA where she hoped to serve as a nurse in the First World War. She was not eligible to serve with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) as she was not a qualified nurse. She carried a letter of recommendation from Dr McDonnell,Alice Perrott, interview by Victor Cohn, 19 November 1955, 146.K.8.6F EKP-MHS which Victor Cohn believed assisted her in being assigned as a Nurse on the crew of the HMAT Suevic.Cohn (1975) p. 54. The Suevic was a "dark ship", so named because unlike hospital ships they were not painted white as protection under the Hague Convention. These transport ships were used to carry war goods and soldiers to the front; returning with wounded soldiers.Butler, Arthur G. (1943) Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–1918, Volume 3, Chapter 14, Sea Transport of Australian Soldiers. Kenny's war service records state her date of appointment to the No. 1 Section, Special Transport Service, as the 28 July 1916. Kenny served on these missions throughout the war, making 8 round trips (plus one round the world via the Panama Canal).