Families, Patients, and Health Care During Manitoba's Polio Era, 1928

‘It has impacted our lives in great measure’: Families, Patients, and Health Care during Manitoba’s Polio Era, 1928 – 1953 By Leah Morton A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Manitoba Winnipeg Manitoba Copyright © 2013 by Leah Morton Abstract This dissertation examines the broad social impacts of the multiple polio epidemics that occurred in Manitoba between 1928 and 1953, a period I refer to as the epidemic era. It argues that examining the six major polio epidemics as an era, and the disabilities it engendered are useful windows into twentieth-century social history, particularly in terms of the capacities and limits of the state to control and manage disease, illness, and health, and the myriad ways the family negotiated discourses about disability and the intersections of disability and gender. It also examines the changes to nurses’ labour during the epidemic era, particularly in terms of the introduction of two new technologies of care – respirators and the Kenny method – both of which led to nursing shortages in the later epidemic, exposing the lingering gendered conceptions about women and voluntary nursing. This project also considers the post-war development of rehabilitation programs, and argues that they worked to discursively transform people with an illness into people with disabilities, in need of reformation in order to become useful, contributing citizens. Finally, this dissertation examines the impact of polio-related disabilities on the lived experiences of a number of Manitobans, and argues that while polio and ideologies about disability worked to shape their lives in many ways, these were not the only forces to impact people’s lives and that people with polio-related disabilities negotiated the quotidian aspects of life much like anyone else. Polio tested, but did not break, the bonds of family. This dissertation draws on a variety of sources, including oral histories, the records of social welfare organizations, hospital records and annual reports, newspapers, and other public records. By exploring the broad social impact of polio, this dissertation adds to a number of literatures and works to bring the history of disability and people with disabilities out of the margins and into the mainstream of Canadian social history. i Acknowledgements After many years spent on this project, one page does not seem like enough space for acknowledgements. Esyllt Jones has been a patient, rigorous, and understanding supervisor and her support, guidance, knowledge, and encouragement have been invaluable. Adele Perry and James Hanley read drafts quickly and I appreciate their insightful comments and conversations. Thanks to Stacie Burke and Magda Fahrni for agreeing to serve on my committee. Gerry Friesen first suggested that this was a topic worth pursuing: he was right. Working on one’s doctorate can feel isolating, but in retrospect it is not. Adele Perry has been the best of mentors, showing me by example how to be a better writer, teacher, and historian. Roisin Cossar has always taken the time to answer my all my questions and provide useful and timely advice. Barry Ferguson, Greg Smith, Sarah Elvins, Marion McKay and others have been supportive in numerous ways. Sandra Ferguson, Sylvie Winslow, and Carol Adam put up with my never-ending questions for years with patience and humour. Discussions and diversions with the friends I have made in graduate school have been invaluable. At York I met Liza Piper, James Muir, Kristen Burnett, Lisa Rumiel, Julie Devaney, and others. Erin Millions, Karine Duhamel, Krista Walters, Heather Graham, Paul Burrows, Susie Fisher Stoesz, Kyle Gibson, Jon Malek and Jeremy Wiebe all provided diversions and good conversation here. Peter Warren was not only a distinguished physician but a keen graduate student. I miss him. Ryan Eyford, Mary Jane McCallum, Chris Dooley, and Sharon Wall at the University of Winnipeg have all been generous with their resources and time. Dissertations (unfortunately) do not write or fund themselves. Brett Lougheed and Lewis St. George Stubbs at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections and Jordan Bass at the NJM Archives were helpful and I thank the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg for giving me access to their records. Elsa Crichlow at the Riverview Hospital Archives was instrumental in providing access to the records of the Winnipeg Municipal Hospitals. All of the members of the Post-Polio Network (Manitoba) and especially those who shared the stories that I used in this dissertation have my gratitude. This dissertation was funded by a number of fellowships and scholarships. I was lucky to receive a Hannah General scholarship before AMS stopped granting them. From the University of Manitoba, I have received a UMGF, the J.S Ewart memorial fellowship, the Faculty of Arts thesis write-up award, and the Raymond F. Currie award. From the Department of History I received the Drummond award and the PhD completion award. I would not have been able to complete this dissertation without financial support from the Canadian Research Chair in Western Canadian Social History. Sometimes, especially at the end of it all, doctoral candidates have to be selfish with their time and my family has put up with a lot. My parents, Larry and Marilyn Morton, have always been generous with their time, money, and babysitting. I could not have done this without their support. My son Kurt has been my tech guy since he was four and has grown into a responsible, selfless, handsome young man, about to start his own university journey. I started this program when my daughter Katie Rose was six months old and she has since turned into a gregarious, captivating, imaginative, beautiful, and funny eight year old who doesn’t like that my work often cuts into our reading time. My beautiful, younger sister Carolyn always took the time to ask how my work and teaching was going no matter what she was facing. She passed away in 2010 and I miss her more than words could ever express. ii Dedicated to my sister Carolyn Ann Morton 1979 – 2010 and my grandfather Thomas Robert King, who had polio 1917 - 2003 iii Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Dedication iii Table of Contents iv List of Tables v Chapter One 1 Introduction Chapter Two 44 “The Saddest of Diseases”: An Overview of Manitoba’s Epidemic Era, 1928 – 1953 Chapter Three 71 “Conquering this Dread Malady”: The Public Health Response to Polio in Manitoba, 1928-1953 Chapter Four 118 “One of the Greatest Scourges that Affects Humanity”: Medical and Nursing Care in the Early Epidemic Era, 1928-1940 Chapter Five 142 “Crises in the Midst of Crises”: Polio and the Transformation of Nurses’ Work, 1941-1953 Chapter Six 183 “To Help Return any Victims of the Disease Back to Normal Living”: The Development of Rehabilitation Programs in Manitoba Chapter Seven 244 “I Sort of Got on with my Life”: The Lived Experiences of People with Polio Related Disabilities in Manitoba Conclusion 287 “It is important that people know what we went through during those times”: Polio, Health Records, and Integrating the Marginalized into Canadian Social History Bibliography 301 iv List of Tables Table 1 35 Canada’s Provincial Polio Rates, per 100,000 Population, Selected Years Table 2 45 Polio in Manitoba, 1927-1953 Table 3 66 Polio Deaths in Manitoba, 1953 Table 4 250 Participants in the Post-Polio Network (Manitoba) Oral History Project v Chapter One: Introduction In late June of 1953, Mrs. Leitch, a resident of East Kildonan, a Winnipeg suburb, took her sons, Brent, aged two and a half, and four-year-old Dale, on a trip to Ottawa, Ontario. What was supposed to be a fun vacation quickly turned tragic when Brent contracted polio on 12 July and died four days later. His parents made plans to return to Winnipeg with his body for burial, but before they could go, four year old Dale contracted polio and Brent had to be buried by his grandparents. Despite these tragedies, polio was not done with the Leitch family: on 22 July, Mrs. Leitch, still reeling from the unexpected death of her youngest son, also contracted polio, and had to be placed in a respirator. Mrs. Leitch’s fate is unknown, and while Dale was reported to have survived, albeit with paralysis in one leg, it is clear that polio affected the Leitch family intimately and irreversibly.1 Most families did not suffer so many polio-related illnesses; however, this one family’s story encapsulates many of the ways Manitobans were affected by the multiple epidemics of the disease that occurred in the province in the first half of the twentieth century. Primarily understood as a disease that affected young children, adults were not immune to polio. Often, people recovered completely, but others were left with paralysis of a limb, as was Dale Leitch. While polio did have a relatively low mortality rate, people did die from it, as did little Brent; although, by the 1940s, the introduction of respirators helped keep people with respiratory polio alive, at least for a while. The widespread use of respirators represents one of 1The story of the Leitch family’s multiple encounters with polio was told in brief snippets in the pages of one of Winnipeg’s two daily newspapers, the Winnipeg Free Press. See for example: “Polio now Termed Epidemic,” Winnipeg Free Press, 18 July 1953, 2; “Polio Strikes Leitch Family Second Time,” Winnipeg Free Press, 20 July 1953, 3; “Mother of 2 Boys Stricken with Polio Gets it Herself,” Winnipeg Free Press, 25 July 1953, 1;“Young Dale ‘Improving’ in Ottawa,” Winnipeg Free Press, 29 July 1953, 1.

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