When I was a young child, I read a book about overcoming adversity. Back in the 1960's adversity was something that meant more than being called names. It was something that challenged body mind and spirit, all at the same time.
June Opie, born in New Zealand in 1924, is remembered for capturing the human spirit’s resilience against one of the most feared diseases of the 20th century—polio. Polio, or poliomyelitis, was a highly infectious disease that could cause paralysis and even death. During the first half of the 20th century, polio outbreaks were frequent and devastating, particularly affecting children.
Opie was diagnosed with polio in 1947 while she was in England. Her life changed drastically when the disease paralysed her, leaving her unable to move or breathe on her own. At the time, the medical response to polio was limited, and for many, a diagnosis meant permanent disability or death.
Across the Tasman, in Australia, a young self trained Nurse, had an idea.
It was derided. Yet she persevered. Both women fought adversity and never used a Diversity, Equity or Inclusion card. No. They were strong, spirited fighters. They fought. Here is their story.
Opie's struggle with polio was both a personal battle and a reflection of the broader fight against the disease. After being struck by the virus, she was placed in an iron lung, a device that helped her breathe mechanically. This marked the beginning of a long and arduous recovery process. Despite the physical and emotional challenges, Opie remained determined to regain as much independence as possible.
Her experiences in the hospital, where she was surrounded by others suffering from the same disease, gave her a deep understanding of the human condition. It was during this period that she began to write about her experiences, transforming her personal battle into a story of hope and resilience.
"Over My Dead Body"
June Opie's most significant contribution to the understanding of polio came through her autobiographical book, Over My Dead Body, published in 1957. The book is a deeply personal account of her battle with polio, capturing both the physical challenges and the psychological toll of the disease.
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is caused by the poliovirus, a highly contagious virus that primarily affects young children. The virus belongs to the genus Enterovirus within the family Picornaviridae. It primarily spreads through the fecal-oral route, which means it is transmitted via contaminated food, water, or hands that have been in contact with the feces of an infected person. In some cases, it can also spread through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Swimming in the Seine is probably the sort of thing that one would avoid when thinking about this, I would have thought..... Once the poliovirus enters the body, it multiplies in the throat and intestines. In many cases, the infection is asymptomatic or causes only mild, flu-like symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, headache, nausea, and sore throat. However, in about 1% of cases, the virus can enter the central nervous system, where it infects and destroys motor neurons—nerve cells that control muscles. Fortunately, today, thanks to the polio vaccine - developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1955.
The destruction of these neurons leads to the symptoms most commonly associated with polio, including muscle weakness and paralysis. Paralysis caused by polio is typically asymmetric, affecting one side of the body more than the other, and can lead to permanent disability. In the most severe cases, the virus can paralyse the muscles involved in breathing, leading to respiratory failure and potentially death if not treated with mechanical ventilation.
The iron lung was invented in 1928 by Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw at Harvard University. The iron lung operates by creating a vacuum around the patient's body, which causes their chest to expand, allowing air to be drawn into the lungs. When the vacuum is released, the chest contracts, expelling the air. This process mimics natural breathing for patients whose respiratory muscles are paralysed.
During the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s, iron lungs were a common sight in hospitals, especially in wards dedicated to polio patients. At the height of the epidemics, thousands of people, primarily children, depended on these devices to survive.
I remember Redhead talking about the outbreak of polio when she was a teenager in New Zealand.
I was 7 years old when the war broke out. I don't remember much of those years except they just rolled along but I do remember when the American Soldiers arrived in Auckland and a very fancy ice cream shop was opened in New Market and sold ice cream in a cone and with all sorts of fancy toppings.
The very first ice cream I had ever seen or tasted.
The other memory was when the war ended in Europe we all stood after the announcement and banged up and down our desk lids and cheered loudly. That lid banging was repeated several months later when Japan surrendered. The schools still had retired teachers brought back to help because the younger ones had gone to War. But then the Polio epidemic closed all the schools.
June Opie did not fully recover from polio in the sense that she regained all her previous physical abilities. While she made significant progress after her time in the iron lung, she was left with lasting physical impairments as a result of the disease. Opie regained some mobility and was eventually able to walk with the assistance of crutches, but she continued to experience the effects of polio for the rest of her life.
Meanwhile, across the Tasman, a nurse was doing some thinking about polio.
Sister Elizabeth Kenny (1880 – 1952) was a self trained Australian bush nurse who developed a controversial new approach for treating victims of poliomyelitis. She saw many victims of poliomyelitis and gradually developed her own methods of treating these patients. Her treatment, which concentrated on strengthening the muscles and encouraged patients to abandon their braces and splints and undertake active movements, was opposed by the medical profession but received strong community and political support.
Sister Elizabeth Kenny passed away on November 30, 1952, but her legacy lives on. Her methods were instrumental in the development of modern physical therapy and rehabilitation techniques. Although the advent of the polio vaccine eventually reduced the need for her treatment approach, her pioneering work continues to be recognised for its role in changing the course of polio treatment.
In 1946, she published her autobiography, And They Shall Walk, which details her experiences and the development of her treatment methods. The book was later adapted into a 1946 film, Sister Kenny, starring Rosalind Russell, which helped to further cement her legacy as a medical innovator.
I have visited the Sister Kenny Memorial Museum in Nobby, Queensland. When I was there, I remember thinking that without people like her, and June Opie, how would we ever have gotten change?
It takes guts to say " Over my dead Body " and then to have someone agree and say " And They Shall Walk. "
But I really believe, hand on heart, that we have to stop entering the boxing ring with bullies and stop swimming in the Seine. Because there is no vaccine to stop stupidity.
What are we doing to our children today? We are crippling them with wokeism. In the old days, they were brought down by polio. Today? Fanatical leftist ideology. It MUST stop. Yet we are being paralysed by our governments and left helpless.
We breathe, but only because they allow us to. We are crippled by laws, legislation and we are housed in ever more confined places. Many of us want to breathe in the fresh air of freedom. yet, these days, we live in a vacuum.
It's not exactly what June Opie and Sister Kenny had in mind.
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