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Birmingham Children’s hospital

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I have just come across this in an old envelope with some other stuff.
 
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This is a ward in The Childrens Hospital.
This ward looks like Ward 4 secound floor which I was in from november 1945 to March 1946. The window far distance left shows a small ward, the person on the right is a ward maid and the member of staff on the left is standing by the windows which opened the full length of the ward. The tables and chairs where outside another sideward.
 
Hi

Yes the several weeks I lay there covered in plaster tape unable to move.
Initial treatment for polio suspects. I remember those Lamps hanging from the
ceiling. One day a large group of Drs came two nurses tore off the plaster tape.
loads of prodding and pulling limbs. Then I heard the words discharge him.
Mom and Dad were there in a few hours and I was home.
Not a clue

Mike Jenks
 
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This picture is the oldest one I have and it has the word victorian written on it.
 

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<img id="vbattach_77111" class="previewthumb" alt="" src="https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=77111&amp;stc=1" attachmentid="77111"><br>This picture is the oldest one I have and it has the word victorian written on it.<br>&nbsp;
 
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These two have the word 'Victorian' written on the back.
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These two have 1900 written on the back.
 
The general treatment for suspected polio, no matter how slight the suspicion was to immobilise, the thought being that if you could not move, the polio would not spread, just shows how much things have changed nowadays, although there are talks of a polio revival, as many families are not taking up the innoculations for their children, as they feel there is no risk as it is not seen any more.same as some of the other diseases common in days gone by.
Lots of things have changed today though, when I started my training, I worked at an orthopaedic hospital, where the childrens ward sister was an older lady and firmly followed the rules that all children should be outside for at least 2 hours, no matter what the weather - a relic from the old TB hospitals - and as our hospital was set in parkland, with terraces. that happened religiously with no excuses, but I am sure the children all benefitted from it.
Sue
 
Hello Sue, I have written on the forum about my sister who was taken frome by ambulance when she was just two years old. The Childrens Hospital diagnosed rhuematoid Artritis ans she was kept in for months, encased in plaster casts for most of the time.
 
The front of the hospital is a grade 2 listed building, hence why it had to be incorporated in the leisure complex. As far as I am aware, the frontage never housed patients but contained the boardroom and administration offices. The main ward block was attached behind the frontage with an infectious disease ward set apart. In the 1940s, a new baby block named after Leonard Parsons was built at the back of the hospital.
 
RE; CHILDRENS HOSPITAL

I was in ward 3 of the childrens in May 1958, having my appendix out. The doctor who performed the op, it was his first operation on his own, and the nurse who looked after me was Maureen Evans, and it was her first time in the theatre. I can always remember him telling her if she was going to faint to leave the theatre, as you can imagine it filled me with a lot of confidence. I am pleased to say that everything went well!.
You might be interested to know that that nurse became Theatre Superintendent, I trained there in late sixties/early seventies. She was a bit scary but very fair!
 
This magazine, The Birmingham “Sporting” Club Household Manual, was the Christmas issue in 1932 with proceeds donated to the Children's Hospital. It contained some photos of the Hospital. Viv.

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These buildings were demolished to make way for the Hospital extension in 1931. Viv.
 

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This hospital saved my life. I was born a Rhesus baby in 1943 in a maternity home in Harborne Rd facing Warley woods.
A nurse there who had worked at the children's hospital recognised the condition and I was immediately transferred to this hospital where I had a blood transfusion.
The research in America which led to the treatment of the condition had only been published a year or so before so I was lucky that I was able to benefit from it.

Regards from Redruth

Arnold.
 
Thanks, I am sure you may know this already but for anyone else who is interested it would have been the birth of your sister who triggered the rhesus response in your mom.

Happy to expand on this if you wish
 
Thanks, I am sure you may know this already but for anyone else who is interested it would have been the birth of your sister who triggered the rhesus response in your mom.

Happy to expand on this if you wish
I was aware that it was my sisters fault. She was always much brighter than me so I always lived in her shadow- Grammar school (Oldbury Grammar)-university (Manchester U). I had to make do with Sec Mod (Four Dwellings) & Smethwick Tech but I did manage to get an HNC. Unfortunately my sister died at at age 58 so never managed reach retirement.

I understand that some of the research into the condition was done by the same people that discovered insulin used to treat diabetes.

Regards Arnold
 
Hi Arnold, not really your sisters’ fault as such more of a quirk of nature. Your moms blood group would have been either positive or negative rhesus. Which ever your mom was, your sister would have been opposite. Not a problem with first baby until the birth of your sister. When she was born, some of her blood would have mixed with your moms’ blood and caused your mom to produce an antibody in response.

You would have had the same rhesus factor as your sister, so the antibody in your moms’ blood would have then made you ill. Had you have had the opposite rhesus factor; it would not have been a problem.

In recent years, they now test both the mother and baby’s blood for the rhesus factor and if they are opposite, they give the mother an injection of Anti D. This prevents the formation of antibody’s in the mothers.

It was picked up with my children, so mom had the Anti D and gave birth to two more kids. The condition with the mother having negative rhesus ran in her family. My grandmother would have used the term “blue Baby”

Rhesus babies are quite rare now, they occasional happen when a mother has had a miscarriage first time round, so are not normally treated with Anti D
 
January 1982 my husband, and I were taking around 10 to 12 Sunday School kids, and adults to see Ruth Madoc in Panto. Cannot the panto’s name.
Oldest son now 50 was 11 at the time came home from school with tummy ache, and feeling sick.
However, after a good rest, and managing to eat fish fingers and chips with gusto thought he would be okay to take him. My husband had a min bus full of kids. I had the car, he moaned all the way again with the tummy ache, but brighten up when we got to the theatre. In fact so bright he managed to eat a few sweets that all the kids had been given.
However, just after the curtain went up he felt bad, husband took him to the toilet, and when he came out he looked terribly, and doubled up in pain. Fortunately we had 2 really good adults with the other kids, so we high tailed it the General Hospital which was still in existence then.

My son was placed on a trolley a doctor came to see him, examined him, and then starting talking about kidney problems, my husband kind of went pale , doctor went away I gather now to consult with someone. My son then projectile vomited everything he had eaten. Husband has the one and only panic episode I have ever seen him have. He turns to me, and says Diane do something, you need to do something.Just then Doc return informing us that our son needs to go to the children’s hospital with suspected appendicitis’s. Ambulance takes us to the children’s straight to a ward the next bit is a blur, but by 11pm in was in theatre. 48 hours later he was home. The only thing at that time they were reluctant to let me stay until he came back from theatre, but they did so thankfully.
Moral of the story we have great hospitals in Brum especially the world beating Children’s Hospital.
 
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