SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2020 Gisborne’s former Cook Hospital, where Marshall Hyland and other polio patients spent several weeks of their lives being Polio epidemic treated for the disease in a dedicated hospital ward, like those typical of others throughout the country. remembered Gisborne Herald fi le photo At 72, Marshall Hyland still remembers the exact date and what he was doing when, as an eight-year-old growing up in Gisborne, he suddenly fell ill with polio. e memory of it is etched on his mind, he says. Marshall had bulbar paralytic poliomyelitis — the most severe of three types of polio. He revisits the experience, for our readers, from his Whakatane home during the Covid-19 lockdown. It was Friday night, the fourth of etched in my mind. e polio ward was in window and, lo and behold, it was my father because they were like little Gods then. All November, 1955 — I was playing the south east corner of Cook Hospital. You bringing me books from home. Other than the nurses would be scurrying around about “cricket in our backyard with a went in there and you stayed there, with no that, there weren’t any visitors while I was in 9am and everyone would be made ready with neighbour and I felt feverish, like I visitors, until you came out ‘one way or the there — I don’t think visitors were allowed. the blankets pulled down on the beds. e was getting the ‘fl u so mum put me to bed other’. “One of the touching things I got in doctors didn’t talk to us. ey’d talk to each and I was in bed all day Saturday. “ ere were probably 20 patients in the hospital in the polio ward was a letter other about us and then move to the next “On Sunday morning, she brought me a main ward and half a dozen in the side written by each person in our class, which bed. cup of tea and I went to drink it but couldn’t ward and the end ward. It was full of oldies. was fantastic —that was a lovely memory. “Down the end of the ward there were swallow. It all came out my nose. Most of the oldies got badly paralysed. e “As we got better, we were moved into side about half a dozen young boys. We thought “So, the doctor got called and the next young ones seemed to escape the paralysis wards. en we were taken outside on our we were fi t and rearing to go. We were always thing I was taken up to Cook Hospital and externally — fortunately. hospital beds and our pyjamas were opened wanting to get up. Two nurses would have to straight into the medical superintendent Mr “I remember the fi rst week being in bed up, and we lay in the sun for an hour — stop us. One of them would literally hold us Hall’s offi ce. He said I had polio so I went right under the nurses’ noses and the obviously to get some sun tan on us. down while the other reached in and took our straight down to the polio ward. I was lucky occasional poke and prod and visits from “I remember my fi rst bath because it was pyjama pants off . at stopped us getting up! not to have the painful lumbar puncture nurses and doctors, but I was largely asleep burning hot but it was a lovely feeling having “I tested one nurse so much she said, most other people had to diagnose polio. or unconscious. a fi rst bath. at was probably about the third ‘Alright, if you want to get out of bed, get “I went in on Sunday November 6 and I “ e second week, I got moved into the week. came out on December 5. ose days are ward. at week there was a tap on the “I remember the daily doctor’s visits CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 News year’s resolution? Stay Keep Subscribe safe and informed... today healthy 32337-01 Call Cara Haines on 869 0654 or email [email protected] 2 tHe gisBorNe Herald LEAD ‘Poliomyelitis was greatly feared’ marshall Hyland and his wife maria, who now live in whakatane. Picture suplied FROM PAGE 1 led later on to the overuse of the remaining muscles with the post-polio problem. out of bed,’ so I turned around and jumped “However, I got trained up as a boy soprano out of bed and of course crashed to the floor to strengthen my throat — then I joined the and kept on going . ‘cos my legs had lost all Gisborne municipal band and I spent 10 years feeling. with them . in the guise of throat exercise, “hen we had that fairly painful process of but it gave me a lovely musically singing time the very, very, hot blanket wrapped in rubber. for the rest of my life. the oral polio It was put around your legs and ooh, that “I’ve had to give it up now to ease the vaccine (right) was hurt, but it got some feeling back in them. pressure on my throat. It’s getting a bit too a much- preferred “Because you were constipated, face down much but it’s been a lifetime of musical method of receiving you had ice cubes stuck up your bum and it than the previously pleasure.” injected form of the oil poured in through a funnel to get the old Marshall sufers regularly from vaccine (above). bowels moving. laryngospasms, which he says can be Gisborne Herald ile “When I inally left hospital, I used to go frightening. photos back there every second day to get some “Your larynx just locks up with the slightest rather painful physiotherapy for my back. stimulation from food or saliva. “here are three strains of polio — I had “As well as that, for the last 15 years, about the worst one which is called bulbar paralytic every six weeks, I’ve been getting a feeling of poliomyelitis. I had it in my throat, my spine, catching the lu. I think that’s the post-polio and my brain stem. I don’t know how I got it. syndrome they talk about kicking in — if I it was realised, it was too late. One or two and people aren’t spending time at shopping My younger sister was nursed at home with get run down or get a cold or something.” survived for many years but I think that was malls just for the sake of it. polio a couple of weeks before I got it but she Marshall never joined a polio support group more the exception.” “I think a fair bit of that — not all of it — had a diferent strain. I think I was about one but has looked at their web pages and once Marshall recalls he was still a student at will wear of. of three at Awapuni Primary School who got contacted another survivor who was able to Awapuni School when polio vaccines were “I think domestic tourism will get a big the polio. lend him some reassurance. irst introduced. boost. I can remember even 30 or 40 years “he last polio epidemic in New Zealand “I was starting to get the larynx spasms “It was probably a couple of years later. Very ago, there wasn’t that much international was in 1955-1956. Polio was greatly feared, quite a lot and I heard people in operations fortunately, I didn’t have to have one, given tourism. It’s a fairly recent thing — even even though that wasn’t evident to me as an died from larynx spasms so I looked up a my immunity, but I had to take a note to though we were highly skewed towards it, I eight-year-old in 1955. post-polio website and phoned someone in school from my parents and doctor. think that will be quiet for years to come.” “I attended the 100th anniversary of Motu Blenheim. She assured me that she got them I remember the queues of kids lined up and School many years ago and a booklet I’ve and she still had time, even though struggling quite a few of them fainting and getting quite 1918 influenza pandemic got from the celebration has extracts from for breath, to ring the ambulance before she hysterical. It was in the newspaper about it he worst disease disaster in New Zealand the various school diaries. It shows probably lost consciousness. I took a bit of solace from because it was a huge needle. history was the 1918 inluenza pandemic, about every three or four years the school that and thought, well if the worst comes to “I think they gave the injections once and which killed more than 50 million people would be shut and the district shut down worst, I can ring the ambulance and won’t be then fortunately the Sabin oral vaccination worldwide, including 9000 in this country. because of polio again.” dead before they come. It’s funny how you came along.” Aside from that, the most alarming Marshall says he never felt stigmatised think about these things — in a strange sort Before he retired, Marshall spent 12 years infectious disease in New Zealand last from having polio but many suferers were. of way I took comfort from that. in Civil Defence Emergency Management century was poliomyelitis (polio) — an acute “I think that was more the people who “he other thing I’ve noticed over the last in Porirua.