Sister Kenny Fights On

For the umpteenth time Sister Elizabeth Kenny, the Australian nurse who developed the Kenny treatment for infantile paralysis, last week threatened to go home. Her running feud with orthodox medical men has long enlivened the press (TIME, Sept. 27, 1943; June 26). And her forthright disposition has earned her the nicknames "The Duchess" and "Madam Queen." Not satisfied when doctors accept her methods, she insists that they also accept her theories--theories that many experts say lack proof.

Sister Kenny ascribes her present huff to three new indignities: 1) no research men have come to the Elizabeth Kenny Institute in Minneapolis to study her methods; 2) the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis refused to give her as much money for research as she thinks she needs ($840,000); 3) her permit to stay in the U.S. will expire in May; to stay on she must apply for a renewal.

A fourth source of irritation has resulted from her recently acquired interest in spastic paralysis, a disease in which damaged nerves cause uncoordinated movements. When she took four such cases into the Kenny Institute for treatment, local doctors had them removed. Sister Kenny soon resigned from the Institute. The Institute's board of directors refused to accept Sister Kenny's resignation and the Institute promised to do "everything hu manly possible" to further the research she wants.

The day after Sister Kenny made her latest threat to go home, New York's Representative Donald L. O'Toole introduced a bill proposing a Congressional investigation of the opposition to Sister Kenny. On hearing of the bill, Sister Kenny announced that she would wait: ". . . I do consider in all fairness that the suggested Congressional investigation should be initiated at once in order that the people of America . . . should know the truth. If it is their desire that I leave . . . I shall go. If it is their desire that I stay, I shall remain."

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