Elizabeth Kenny

Elizabeth Kenny was an Australian nurse and physiotherapist who was known for her alternative approach to polio treatment, known as the Kenny method. She was born on 20 September 1880 in Warialda, New South Wales, Australia, to Michael Kenny, an Irish farmer, and Mary Moore Kenny, a sister of several prominent Australians. She was home schooled by her mother and only received a few years of formal education. She became interested in anatomy and physiology after breaking her wrist in a horse accident when she was 17. She studied nursing under Dr. Aeneas McDonnell in Toowoomba and became a self-taught bush nurse. She served as a nurse in the Australian Army during World War I and treated wounded soldiers in Egypt and England. She returned to Australia in 1919 and continued her nursing career in various rural areas. In 1911, she encountered her first case of polio, a young girl with a paralyzed arm. She applied hot wet compresses to the affected limb and gently moved it to relieve the pain and stiffness. She claimed that this treatment restored some function to the arm. She later developed this technique further and applied it to other polio patients with similar results. She called her method "muscle re-education" and believed that polio did not cause paralysis but muscle spasm that could be relieved by heat and movement. She also advocated for early mobilization and active exercises for polio patients instead of immobilizing them with splints and braces. Her method was controversial and met with resistance from the medical establishment, which considered it unscientific and dangerous. However, she gained some support from patients, parents, politicians and some doctors who witnessed her results. She also received recognition from overseas and travelled to England and the United States to demonstrate her method. She established clinics and training centers for her method in several countries and wrote several books and articles on polio treatment. She also founded the Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1942 and the Sister Kenny Foundation in 1951 to promote research and education on polio treatment. She received many honors and awards for her work, such as the Order of Australia, the Order of the British Empire, honorary doctorates from several universities, and a biographical film titled Sister Kenny in 1946. She died of Parkinson's disease on 30 November 1952 in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.