- Dorothea Higgins, nurse at old Coast Hospital in polio epidemic 1952.

OVER the past few years the oral history group has been discussing how attitudes and customs have changed in our lifetimes. We have always tried to see the benefits of these changes , although have not always agreed that they were for the best!

This year we have been recalling natural disasters and ways they have been dealt with in the past. 

There  is one area which we all agree has improved enormously, and that is in the treatment and containment of infectious diseases, and with two experienced  nurses in our group, we were off to a flying start.

Plagues and epidemics  have always been with us and possibly always will be, but great strides have been made in conquering some of the most deadly scourges.

Smallpox, typhoid, bubonic plague  and  leprosy were all before our time in this country, but we knew tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, tetanus, meningitis, gastroenteritis, whooping cough,  influenza, measles, mumps, scarlet fever and chicken pox,  most of which, today, can be either largely prevented or cured.

But in 1881 it was a different matter. 

With a  smallpox epidemic raging  in Sydney, and panic gripping the population, 500 acres of land were allocated for an emergency quarantine hospital to be built in remote scrubby country near La Perouse.  At first it consisted of a series of tents until more substantial accommodation could be erected, but  nevertheless the first patients were admitted in September, 1881.

It was known as the Coast Hospital until the official title was given in 1934.

By the time Dot Higgins began her four-year general training at Prince Henry Hospital, smallpox was a thing of the past, but there were still many other  infectious diseases to be confronted.

Poliomyelitis was one of these and for patients whose breathing had been compromised, iron lungs were a necessity.

“The polio epidemics were dreadful,” Dot told us. “So many young people died or were in iron lungs for very long periods.”

Infection  was always a worry and great precautions were taken to prevent it.

“We wore funny pink robes and absolutely everything had to be washed and scrubbed, which we did ourselves in the big laundries. All the equipment and coppers and taps were thoroughly cleaned every day and the instruments sterilised.”

There was nothing  disposable in those days and it all had to be done by the nurses under the watchful eye of matron.

At Prince Henry hospital they also looked after patients with other infectious diseases.

“Diphtheria affected many children,” Dorothea went on. “Often trachiectomies had to be performed to help them breathe. Scarlet fever, whooping cough and measles could be very dangerous and to see someone with tetanus was horrific.

“There  was even a leprosarium built a bit away from the hospital for the lepers who mostly came from the islands to the north. It was in a lovely setting with the water at their doorstep.”

The oral history group searched its own memory for the childish diseases they may have had, but most of them seem to have been lost in the mists of time, although they were all pretty sure they had had them all!

“It was something we all expected to get,” remarked Bruce Martin.

Barbara’s little brothers were very sick with whooping cough but "there was no treatment and no transport in the bush."

“I remember the awful cough with whooping when I was only four, and thinking to myself, ‘This can’t go on’,” said  Russel Moor.

“There was not a lot the medical profession could do in those days,”said Dot.

“A lot of nursing was involved, keeping the patient comfortable  and trying to get the temperature down . Mothers did it very well!”

Kerrel Moor was also a nurse in the days of big isolation wards.

“When I began nursing we had patients with polio , gastroenteritis, meningitis, tetanus and TB. They were all highly infectious and there was really no cure.”

Later, when some of these diseases could be prevented by immunisation, Kerrel had an unforgettable experience when she was nursing at Willcannia.

“We didn't have a doctor there a lot of the time,” she told us. “However a city doctor did visit at one stage and Matron decided that we should hold a clinic at White Cliffs and that I should accompany the doctor, who wanted to immunise everyone against everything we possibly could.

“I was assured that there would be a room there where we would have all the equipment we would need.

“I soon found there were only two syringes which had to be sterilised after every use (there was nothing disposable in those days) and they had to be boiled up on the old stove for at least 10 minutes. I was the only nurse, all the equipment was old and hadn't been used for years and the stove had to be fed with paper and sticks to keep it going!

“The city doctor who didn't know about such things, kept sending me patients and the queue kept growing longer and longer! 

“I often wonder how many other infections I may have caused that day!”

While many of these diseases can nowadays be eliminated, the fight still goes on, especially in the densely populated third-world countries.

It is probably well to remember that we were not always so fortunate and that life was often very difficult for people in “those days”.

Next month: The food we  used to eat and the way we ate it.