Elizabeth Kenny

Elizabeth Kenny was an unaccredited Australian nurse who promoted a controversial new approach to the treatment of poliomyelitis. Her findings ran counter to conventional medical wisdom they demonstrated the need to exercise muscles affected by polio instead of immobilising them. Kennys principles of muscle rehabilitation became the foundation of physical therapy, or physiotherapy.

Elizabeth Kenny was born in Warialda, New South Wales, in 1880 or 1886, the daughter of Mary , a native Australian, and Michael Kenny, a farmer from Ireland. She was called Lisa by her family and was homeschooled by her mother before attending schools in New South Wales and Nobby, Queensland. At age 17, she broke her wrist in a fall from a horse. Her father took her to Aeneas McDonnell, a medical doctor in Toowoomba, where she remained during her convalescence. While there, Kenny studied McDonnells anatomy books and model skeleton. This began a lifelong association with McDonnell, who became her mentor and advisor. Kenny later asserted that she became interested in how muscles worked while convalescing from her accident. Instead of using a model skeleton, since they were available for medical students only, she made her own. From ageuntil her midtwenties, she worked as an unaccredited bush nurse in the Clifton district. In 1907, Kenny returned to Guyra, New South Wales, to live wit

Source: Wikipedia