Posts by Hilary Stace
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Access: Persistent Polio, in reply to RichardBody,
Thankyou RichardBody. I really like the idea of people gathering and sharing their own family histories, particularly when it involves our largely unrecorded polio history (or other disability themes). Even the DSIR is now merely a memory.
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They refer to themselves as polios. I checked whether someone without polio could also use that term and it seems fine. Seems to be a convenient term without political overtones. That 'people with' language debate doesn't seem to be an issue. Perhaps because this is an older group predating disability identity and activism debates.
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Access: Persistent Polio, in reply to wendyf,
One of the concerns of polios today is the lack of understanding or knowledge of polio by clinicians. Most will have never seen a case. Several said they liked new immigrant doctors from Asia or Africa as they usually had up to date experience.
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Some history. Here (in this link below) is a almost all you need to know about the 1974 Paraplegic Games in Dunedin. They took place just before the Commonwealth Games at the end of January. Note that many of the NZ athletes went on to become well known in many spheres including Neroli Fairhall.
There was also an official stamp for the Paraplegic Games as one of the series on the Commonwealth Games
https://stamps.nzpost.co.nz/new-zealand/1974/commonwealth-games -
Access: Persistent Polio, in reply to Sue,
My oldest sister remembers schools being closed for most of the first term in one epidemic. They weren't allowed out of their little street or to play with neighbourhood kids and certainly not allowed to go to the pool, even though it was a very hot summer. But they were all so terrified of polio they complied.
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She caught polio on the boat to the UK - basically on her OE. Then spent a long time in the dreaded iron lung recovering - her descriptions of it are horrific.
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Thanks Joe. I was going to mention June Opie as her book was very popular in our school library and I remember it very vividly. I didn't realise she was a New Zealander till recently. She wrote a follow up in the 1990s.
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The 'polios' I have met (that is what they tend to call themselves) are some of the staunchest pro-vaxxers you could find (unlike the autism community which still argues about it).
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Access: Persistent Polio, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
Thanks Raymond. Yes Rotary have been dedicated to this cause for a long time. I am from the era when we lined up in the classroom to have the cherry pink drink in little paper cups.
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A couple more links
The type of Australian-designed iron lung used in NZ
http://samhs.org.au/Virtual%20Museum/Medicine/Bothurinlung/bothironlung-netley.htmlThe UK Nuffield Foundation donated one to every hospital in the British Empire.
http://www.marchofdimes.org/glue/images/Main_celeb_4.png
Elvis getting his vaccine shot. He was a great supporter of the March of Dimes