The Sister Kenny Network

The genesis of the Kenny treatment for poliomyelitis: Method or metaphor?

The story of Elizabeth Kenny's first encounter with an infantile paralysis patient is one of the great legends of twentieth century medicine, yet its veracity is questionable and the relevance of the symbolism of the narrative has for the most part been ignored or misunderstood. This paper examines the role the Kenny discovery legend played in shaping the controversy which surrounded her work in the 1940s, and proposes an alternate account of the genesis of the regime which revolutionised the treatment of infantile paralysis.

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