Polio2

I remember that on the weekends a lot of people would come to visit the children at Kosair Hospital. Mom said the mayor of Louisville would come to the hospital and bring people to entertain the children. I remember people making animals and things out of balloons and giving them to us. My mother also said there were occassions when celebraties would visit the hospital. She particularly remembered Liberace. The children would be pushed into this large room in wheel chairs and beds to see the entertainers.
There were children in many different conditions of disability from contracting the polio virus. I remember seeing girls and boys on lung machines and being strapped to beds in the middle of a big round contraption attached to the mattress and it would move them from a lying position to a verdical position. I did not understand what I was seeing. Some children had crooked spines and had surgeries to straighten their spines. After surgery they would have a cast from the waist to the shoulders with holes for their arms. Their heads needed to remain stationary until their backs healed. There would be two medal rods attached to the front of their cast and two attached to the back of their cast. A round metal form went around their heads and they were attached to their heads by screws into their sculls from the round halo attached to the four rods that came up from the front and back of the cast. I really felt sorry for those children. I always considered myself lucky that I was not affected any worse than I was by the polio virus.
I will never forget the Occupational Theropist that taught the boys and girls how to make things for fun and to get their minds off the ordeal of being in a hospital. Her name was Diane Fossey. She was beautiful and I liked her a lot. I remember learning how to make pot holders, small pocketbooks and I am sure there were other projects that I cannot remember. One of the summers I was there Ms. Fossey was all excited about her upcoming vacation to Africa. Little pitchers have big ears and I am sure she must have been talking to some of the nurses and aids. She never came back to Kozair. She is the same lady who fell in love with the gorillas in Africa and studied their habits for years until her mysterious death in the 1980s. I did not connect the lady with my Occupational Therapist until I picked up a magazine in a store in New Jersey and her picture was on the front page.
Ms. Fossey entered a contest with a local radio station to win a party. She won the contest and the radio station came to the hospital and gave us a party with music, games and food. That was a very special time for me. I discovered rock & roll from listening to the songs they played on the radio station live from the hospital.
The next surgery I had at Kozair was when I was 10 years old. My doctors were Dr. Fisher and Dr. Zoller. Mom thought the world of them because they were helping me so much. Metal staples were put on either side of my good knee to stop the growth of that leg so that my polio leg could grow and catch up in length so that I would not have to have a two inch buildup on the bottom of the brace. This surgery was not so bad and I enjoyed the time I was in the hospital. Except for another visit to their Dentist. I was held down while they drilled cavaties in my front teeth, there was no novacane at that time.    There was a girl there who went to visit the dentist and came back in only a few minutes to announce to the other children and me that the dentist said she had perfect teeth and didn't need to have anything done. I don't know about the other children, but there was instant hate for her by me.
When I was released from the hospital it was on a Saturday and there was a big celebration taking place on the grounds of the Hospital. There was a fish fry. I do believe this was a fundraiser. I was on crutches and had a cast on my leg. Mom and I had something to eat and walked around for awhile before catching the bus back to Mr. and Mrs. Hale's house, the people we stayed with everytime we had to come to Louisville for a clinic visit or operation. Mom said people began to give me money and by the time we left to catch the bus I had enough money for mom to buy me a new winter coat that fall.
The last surgery I had was to remove the staples from my knee because my legs were equal in length. My family moved to Louisville while I was in the hospital. When I was 14 the hospital contacted mom and asked if I could be on the Shriner's float in the Kentucky Derby parade. My mom was thrilled. I remember going to the Shriner's building with mom and being driven in a big car to the parade staging area. Riding on the float was exciting and was the first time I wasn't overcome by shyness at so many people looking at me on the float. Mom took this picture as we passed by where my family was standing viewing the parade. Mom was so proud of me.

This is a picture of me waiting in the convertable of the Shriner's Temple waiting to go to the float for the parade I was in for the hospital.