Starring Madeline Carroll as Sister Elizabeth Kenny on the cavalcade of America. Sponsored by DuPont of Wilmington, Delaware. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Medical science has studded with the names of its pioneers. Some of these have been scientists laboring in their laboratories. Some have gone forth directly to minister at bedside. Tonight we pay tribute to one of these healers. To a nurse who fought with her own hands against a dread disease. To a woman of today, Elizabeth Kenny, the Australian nurse whose treatment of infantile paralysis has brought her worldwide acclaim. On our program, Miss Kenny, or Sister as nurses are called in Australia, will be portrayed by Madeline Carroll. Madeline Carroll as Sister Kenny on the cavalcade of America. The clouds of mystery cover disease, mystery and fear. Since the days of the Pharaohs of Egypt on whose tombs we see its results pictured, infantile paralysis has stopped through palace and hovel, taking its toll in crippled and disfigured bodies. But now in our lifetime, a way has been found to help many of its victims. Our story begins in Australia, in the outback of Queensland, when Elizabeth Kenny was in her late teens. A nearest McDonald was family physician and a close friend to the Kenny family. He called one afternoon as he so often did. Mrs. Kenny answered the door. Oh, come in, Doctor. Oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Kenny. I'm a bit early for tea, but the wind's sharp and I thought you wouldn't mind my dropping in a bit earlier than usual to get warm. Of course not. My food's not back yet, but I'll go and have the kettle put on. Elizabeth, here is Dr. McDonald. Oh, Dr. McDonald, I'm so glad to see you. Well, and how's my girl today? I've got something to show you. Remember that skeleton you left me have? Yes. Well, look. I hardly recognize him. He's certainly all dressed up. Please don't laugh. See this crepe paper I stretched along his arms and here on his back, too? I built it up like muscles. I used crepe paper because it'll stretch just like the real muscles. But to keep the arm in line, I've had to stretch paper along both the under and upper side. See? Then as one piece stretches, like this, the other side loosens. Isn't that neat? That's quite good. Honestly. You know what you've done? You've found out about opposing muscles, all by yourself. Be of a careful eye, my girl. Tell me, do you still think about being a nurse? Oh, yes, I think about it all the time. Here we are with some good hot tea for the doctor. Shall I pour, Mother? All right, Elizabeth. You know, Doctor, it seems to me that this girl of mine thinks of nothing but caring for the sick. And what's wrong with that? Oh, nothing, I suppose. Only, well, Michael and I aren't sure we want her to become a nurse. We rather think at high time she settled down and thought about getting married. Mrs. Kitty, I doubt if what you want will come to pass. Elizabeth has a mind of her own, that's evidently certain. And if she decided to become a nurse, that's what it'll be. Doctor, may I have a word? Oh, hello, Sister Kenny. Hello, Jerry. We haven't seen you in this part of the bush country for ages. I've been up in the Pilton Hills. How is it out there? Very bad just now. That's why I'm here. Jerry, you must send a telegram for me right away. What's the matter, Sister? I don't quite know. That's the trouble. But Jerry, it's something terrible. Oh, well, you sit down here and I'll tap it out as you say it. I have it written down here, if you can read my writing. To Dr. Enius MacDonald, chief surgeon, to Womba General Hospital, Queensland. Six children here, seriously ill. Do not recognize symptoms, but all have similar manifestations. Fever high, nausea, hands tremble, violent perspiration. Two cases, neck so stiff that patient cannot touch chin to chest. Please tell me what to do. Elizabeth Kenny. That's right, Sister. That sounds bad. Oh, Jerry, you should see those poor children. They're in terrible pain. I'll tell the operator on the other end to hurry the reply. But you're waiting. Now, here's your answer coming through from To Womba, Sister Kenny. Yes, what did he say? Infantile paralysis. Infantile paralysis? No known cure. No cure? Do the best you can with the symptoms presenting themselves. The best I can. Sign MacDonald. Oh, Jerry, that's not much help. But I have to do as he says. The best I can. Oh, slow down Thunderbolt. Oh, there boys. Here we are. Who is it? It's Sister Kenny. Oh, come in, Sister. Oh, Judith, shut the door quickly so the wind won't strike Danny. Yes, Mother. Oh, child, you may stay out of this room all the time now. Oh, thank God you're back. Tell me what's happened. Oh, it's getting worse, Sister. Danny can't hold it all now. I tried to help him, but he screams if I even touch him. What are we going to do, Sister? Did you try the hot salt application? Yes, but he just couldn't stand the weight of it. Or the limped cold, Sister, either, I suppose. No. Sister, we must do something. You can't just let him lie there. If only a doctor were here. I doubt it. He'd know what to do either. What do you mean? Did you get some word from the doctor? Yes, he said we just have to do what we could. He wasn't able to advise. Well, didn't he even know what the trouble was? Yes, he knew, Mrs. Morgan. It's infantile paralysis. Oh, no, Sister. No. No. Now, Mrs. Morgan, you must stand by me and help. We'll find a way. We must. I'm sorry, Sister. Danny, I want to look at you. No, don't be afraid. I'll be very gentle. Let me just put my fingers along your arm here, where it's all drawn up. Now the underside. Oh, please, Don. Oh, no. I'm all through, Danny. There. Mrs. Morgan, I think the reason he can't move is because this inner muscle is drawn up so short. See there? I do. Tight like that, it prevents the opposite muscle out here from moving either. Yes, but how do you relax them? That's what I've got to find out. I'm still sure it's heat we need, but we must think of something lighter weight than salt or meal. Well, would maybe a sheet do? It might, but no, it wouldn't retain the heat long enough. But maybe wool. Have you some old soft wool blankets? Yes, I'll get them. We'll cut them up in strips and then wring them out of boiling water and apply them. I think that may do the trick. Here's the blanket, Sister, and here's the hot water. I'm a stone. Good. Now, Danny, I want to lift you up. Yes, ever so slowly. There. Fasten your feet. Now we'll wrap this around your chest. So, have you some safety pins? Thank you. Now one for your shoulder. That's it. Now for your arm. Am I hurting you this time, Danny? No, not so much, Sister. Fine. Now for the other arm. There. Any better? I can't tell yet. Now, Mrs. Morgan, we must find some more blankets, but we'll have to change these as soon as they begin to cool off. Yes, Sister. How are you feeling, child? I don't hurt so much. That's the boy. Mrs. Morgan, I think this is it. Look how much easier he breathes already. Oh, he does. I'll ride over to the Burleigh child now and see what I can do for her, and then I'll be back. Remember to keep Judith in the back room away from Danny. I will, Sister, and please come back soon. I'll be back as soon as I can, and every day until we get this lift. Oh, look, he's falling asleep. It seems like a miracle. God bless you, Sister. Oh, come in, Mr. Kenny. Oh, my goodness, you look tired, my dear. It's been a long week and no sleep to mention. How's Danny? Well, for two days now, he's had almost no pain at all. Mrs. Morgan, I think we're out of the woods. The other children rest quietly, too. But, Sister... Yes, what is it? He can't move. What? He's not in pain, but he can't move. Danny? Yes, Sister? Let's see you try to lift your arm. Sister, I... I can't. You see? Never mind then, Danny. Don't try. Mrs. Morgan, even in this short time, it looks as if his nerves have lost their control over his muscles. You mean he'll never be able to move? Not unless we can teach him how all over again. I wonder how. There must be a way. Danny, I'm going to try to move your arm a bit for you. Now, now, you must help me. But just by thinking, don't try to do anything yourself, see. Just watch me and put your mind hard onto what I do. Now, up goes your elbow, out turns your wrist. Up goes your elbow, out turns your wrist. Up goes your elbow. You are listening to Madeline Carroll as Sister Kenny on the Cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont. After days and weeks of patient experimentation, all the children were up and running again. As our play continues, Sister Kenny has gone back to Toowoomba to see her old friend, Dr. McDonald. Well, my girl, you've been through a lot these past few months. Well, it's... But a nurse fresh to the job, to have to face a polio epidemic all alone, is baptism by fire for certain. I was pretty scared, I can tell you. I wish I'd been able to come into the outlands to help you. Now, tell me about the children. How many did you lose? None. None? That was great good luck. A couple of them were very sick, but they're all well now. You told me to treat them as best as I could, and I did. That's splendid. Tell me, how badly are they crippled? Crippled? Why, they're not crippled at all. Not... not crippled? What do you mean? They're as well as can be. Well? That's right. You mean they can move and walk as though they hadn't had polio? Exactly. But you... you said in your telegram that you... you led me to believe they were severe cases. Paralysis had already set in. It had, they couldn't move. But cases like that just don't recover. These did. But what did you do? I applied heat. I ran blankets out of boiling water. And then with my hands, I worked on the muscles until I got them back into functioning. I can't believe it. We... we must have diagnosed it wrong. Come into the ward here and I'll show you what real infantile paralysis looks like. There. You see? But that's just the way they were. Like that? Exactly? Your children? Two or three days after they became sick, my children appeared like those. It's incredible that. If I'd not known you since you were a baby, I'd think you were imagining things. But Doctor, what happened to those children over there? Those are the convalescent ones. Yes, but they're all bound up. That's supposed to be the newest method and best idea on how to treat them. Splinting and immobilization as soon as paralysis showed itself. Splinting? Yes. That way we can support the parts of the body that have lost their power of movement. That's the prescribed method. Doctor, what have I done? Just the opposite. Oh, I'm sorry. I never knew that. You needn't worry, my girl. Your children got well, you see. Those you're looking at, we'll never walk again. If what you say is so, and I have no reason to doubt you, you have done a great thing. But we must be sure. And when we are sure, then we must convince the men in medicine. And that's the story, gentlemen. And all I can add is that all the children are well again. Sister Kelly, let me question one point. You say the muscle's in the spasm. What makes you think so? My doctor, I can see it right in front of me, can't you? Haven't you noticed involuntary contractions? I've got a lot of them. I've got a lot of them. I've got a lot of them. I've got a lot of them. I've got a lot of them. Well, when the one muscle is shortened that way, the opposing muscle is prevented from contracting so that all movement stops. Do you realize that your challenging medical opinion by claiming the muscles in your polio cases are taut rather than weak and flexed? I do, for that is what I have observed to happen. The muscle you thought was affected is perfectly all right. It's the opposite muscle to which you've paid no attention that is paralyzed. It's ridiculous. Miss Kenny, I must tell you that the Royal Commission believes that it would be particularly damaging to adopt your non-splinting method, owing to its failure to prevent injury due to muscle stretching and deformity due to muscular imbalance. Gentlemen, let's simplify the talk. We're all striving for the same thing, to make human beings, especially children, suffer a little less. We all want that. Give me a chance to show you that I found out how, for I have. Please let me do it. Music But the doctors held firm against her. No beds were placed at Sister Kenny's disposal in any hospital to allow her to prove her claims. But in 1937 and 1908 there was a severe epidemic in the Australian state of Victoria, and the staunch-hearted healer, working as she always had without pay, was at last allowed to show what she could do. And she did. Two years later, a grateful Australian government sent her to the United States to demonstrate her methods to American doctors. Miss Kenny, I am not surprised at this story of your reception here in America. You certainly haven't passed like a heartbreak from one medical hand to another. That's an accurate description, all right. But I am surprised at why you came over here at all. You'd had such a time at home. Didn't you know it would be the same story over again here? I suppose I did, Dr. Cole, but I had to come anyhow. Don't forget, after all, I'm a nurse, not a doctor. Until I can get you medical men who have the scientific authority to say I'm right, the job won't be done. I see your point. Besides, you have so many more infantile paralysis cases here in the United States and Canada than we have at home or anywhere else in the world. You know that. So I guess I had to come where the fight looked thickest. Miss Kenny, you can't blame us for being skeptical. After all, you ask us to turn upside down everything that we've been taught and worked on. Doctors have a great responsibility to the people. Can't do such things lightly. Miss Kenny, your terminology is unique, if I may say so. Take your word in coordination, for example. I've never heard it in this connection. What do you mean by it? Well, Dr. Knapp, I see it this way. A child with polio is like a man trying to lift a heavy weight by facial contortions alone. He is substituting useless and wrong muscles for the ones that he should be using to do what he has to do, and we've got to set him right again. Seems fairly clear to me. Dr. Cole, let's not waste more time in talk. Let me work here at your Minneapolis clinic, and I'll show you what I mean by all these things. Well, Dr. Knapp, I'm inclined to give Miss Kenny a chance. What do you say? All right. And Dr. Pole? Oh, I'm agreeable. Why not give her that child that was brought in this morning? Oh, that's hardly fair. That child can't survive the day. She's the one I want, then. What's her condition, Dr. Pole? Completely paralyzed on the left side. Her head hangs back at an angle so that she can't swallow. Needless to say, she can hardly breathe. Please let me go to her. Here's the patient, Doctor. Come in, Miss Kenny. That is all, Doctor. Well, what do you think? A bad case. The odds are 20 to 1 against us, I'd say. But if you'll let me, I'll go to work. She's in your hands. What do you want the nurse to do? Give me boiling water on a laundry wringer. Then I need some old, soft blankets, a pair of scissors, and some rubberized cloth. We'll have to change the packs every 15 minutes all day and night. Here, wait till I roll up my sleeves. Sister Kenny, we're ready with the water and blankets again. Good. How is her breathing? Oh, it's still pretty difficult. What do you think? The respirator? In a little while, if the next two packs don't help. Listen, Sister, her vocal cords are loosening. Look, her neck is relaxing. Good. I'd say the odds are dropping. Keep the water boiling. I'll sit with her through the night. Good morning, Sister Kenny. You've had a strenuous night, they tell me. Yes, Dr. Pol, but she's still alive. You know, I think I'll reduce the odds against her to two to one. Already you say that? Give me two more days, and I hope I can say more. Sister Kenny, I've just come from that polio case you're at work on. It's astonishing what's happened. First, I'll bet you twenty to one that Rita will walk. Now Rita, let's show the doctors what we can do. Where shall we begin, Sister? How about pectoralis major? Move it all by yourself. Pectoralis major. That's it, child. Now again. Amazing. Sister, can I do the Lattissimus dorsi next? All right, Rita. That's fine. Once more. Dr. Pol, I think next week we can let Rita walk around a bit. Sister Kenny, you win your bet. And anything else you want. Sister Kenny has won other things since that first case in America, and again starts almost as great. She won round after round against the dread disease. She won to the interest and finally the support of the medical profession. Don't misunderstand. This treatment of Sister Kenny's is not a cure, much less, of course, is it a prevention. You can see that. But where the spinal cord cells are not themselves destroyed, this method minimizes the after effects and often makes possible return to normal functioning. Miss Kenny has found symptoms and visible findings in this disease of which we had no idea. She has demonstrated the disease we did not know existed. All this scientific acclaim for work I've struggled so long to get accepted is naturally very welcome to me. But infantile paralysis is just as dreadful as ever. It still strikes whenever and wherever it will. The job is not yet over. It's barely begun. But now there is help. My two hands are rapidly being multiplied a thousand times. And as surely as man has beaten back the other ravages, this one will be forced to the wall. I'm glad to have played a part. And now our star of the evening, Madeline Carroll. Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you will join in my wish that the applause you have just given be transferred to the woman who rightfully deserves it. She is Sister Kenny, and it is my privilege to present her to you now, speaking to you from Minneapolis. I am particularly glad that my life work has been pictured tonight on the DuPont Cavalcade. Wilmington, Delaware, you know, was one of the first places I visited in America with the objective of establishing a clinic. Doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists from that city were taught in Minneapolis and are now carrying on the good work in the Doris Memorial Clinic of the Wilmington General Hospital. Three years ago, by Australian medical men, it was announced publicly that for the first time in the history of medicine, a satisfactory treatment had been evolved for infantile paralysis. Four months later, at the request of this same group of doctors, I came to America to present this great discovery to your medical men. My premier had written announcing my visit to Mr. Basil O'Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. It was a foundation that supplied the financial aid, enabling Dr. Wallace Cole and his colleagues in Minneapolis to investigate the method thoroughly. To this combination, the country owes a debt of gratitude. To them and to all mothers and fathers everywhere, I dedicate this work for the children of America. We have just heard Sister Elizabeth Kenney speaking to you from Minneapolis. Next week, ladies and gentlemen, on Monday, December 7th, Cavalcade will commemorate our first year of war with a special broadcast in which our star and narrator will be the poet of the American people, Carl Sandberg. Our program for that night, a panoramic picture of Americans at war, will be called Road to Victory. Be with us again next Monday when Cavalcade presents Road to Victory, a special broadcast to be narrated by Carl Sandberg. Cavalcade is pleased to advise its listeners that RKO will shortly produce a film based on the life and work of Sister Kenney. Tonight's dramatization was by Norris Houghton. The orchestra and musical score were under the direction of Don Voorhees. This is Clayton Collier sending best wishes from DuPont. This is the National Broadcasting Company. Thank you.
