Meet Patricia: A Sister Kenny Patient
Patricia was one of the many people Sister Kenny was able to positively impact. With this, She knows of her story and method and talks about the struggles Sister Kenny faced being old and people ridiculing her. Thankfully, Sister Kenny didn't stop there and was able to help as many people as she did.
Interview of a Sister Kenny Patient, Courtesy of RangeCare
"Sister Kenny was the savior of my life" ~ Patricia
"Sister Kenny literally gave new lives to thousands of paralyzed polio victims and was a pioneer in helping to establish modern rehabilitation."
~ Dr. Howard Rusk, director, Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University
The Sister Kenny Foundation
The Sister Kenny Foundation was formed by her supporters in 1952, 3 years after her death.
The foundation supported a trial of an oral polio vaccine and also funded 2, worldwide conferences by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), that discussed the positives and the negatives of the live oral vaccine.
In addition, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), at the time was focusing their efforts on the inactivated Salk-type vaccine, and because of the activities funded by the foundation, they were able to reach the licensing decision.
Comic from the Arizona Sun promoting donations to the Sister Kenny Foundation
Kenny's autobiography, Courtesy of the City of Townsville
The Journey
Kenny, after a long, difficult journey was finally able to spread the Kenny method, and helped hundreds, or even thousands, of people in need.
She traveled far and wide to new places like America to earn acclaim, and she didn't let anything hold her back, including her lack of formal education, old age, or any discouragement of the initial, failed attempts of promoting her method and ideas.
Eventually, she was able to cross the frontier of knowledge, by helping the medical community move on from outdated knowledge and start anew with emergence of a new field of medical science, rehabilitation medicine.
"Those who remember the stark terror caused by polio also remember the courageous battle waged by Sister Kenny to change the treatment of this disease.
As mayor of a polio-stricken city -- Minneapolis -- I witnessed first hand the hope that her efforts brought to the afflicted."
~ Hubert H. Humphrey, Former Vice President of United States
"There remains little doubt but that Sister Kenny’s determination and the force of her character were important factors in helping focus on polio the attention which lent speed to the efforts to combat the disease.
She never rested herself, nor did she permit those dealing with the disease, lay persons and those in the medical field, to rest."
~ Arkansas State Press