Dreaming of Tomorrow: Health & Welfare

Isolation Ward Patient Memories
The September 2019 edition of Museum Matters by the Ipswich Hospital Museum contained a recollection of George Stoltz. The following is an extract of his memories.

In 1954 my family resided in Maryborough where my younger sister, Margaret, developed the symptoms of scarlet fever. This was an isolated case in Maryborough. I remember her having the “strawberry tongue” - one of the main symptoms of scarlet fever. The family doctor advised that scarlet fever could only be contracted once. This later proved to be incorrect.

A year or so later our family moved to Ipswich. Shortly after a scarlet fever epidemic spread through Ipswich particularly affecting the children of my age. I think I was about 11 or 12 years old. My symptoms were a high fever, rash on the stomach and a strawberry tongue. When I was diagnosed it seemed only children of my age were most vulnerable. The outbreak of scarlet fever had already taken hold on the juvenile population of Ipswich and medical authorities deemed it appropriate that all children diagnosed with scarlet fever be hospitalised in an isolation ward. A disused hospital facility in Chelmsford Avenue was re-opened to isolate and treat Ipswich children. After being diagnosed I was bundled off quickly to the isolation ward going from Dr. Shera’s in East St via home to collect pyjamas, dressing gown, slippers and tooth brush. I knew one other child patient who attend the same school, the Christian Brothers College Ipswich, now St Edmunds.

I remember there being about 40 children admitted to the isolation ward at one time. The average stay was about 10 to 14 days. In most cases the children did not feel ill but we had contracted the symptoms. We were visited daily by the doctor who administered an injection to the upper leg. After this a pin-sized drop of blood appeared and the injection left a little visible mark. The children counted these marks on their upper legs and the child with the most injection marks had some status amongst the other children. It was almost seen as a competition who had the most injection marks.

 

While we were confined to bed during the day we were allowed to leave our bed and sit at the front of the wards when visitors came. Because of the contagious risk, visitors had to stand on the footpath at a fence in Chelmsford Avenue about 20 metres from the front of the isolation ward where the children sat and talked to their visitors,

Dr. Michael O'Rourke

Following is an extract from Museum Matters in June 2023.

The fourth Medical Superintendent at Ipswich was Dr. Michael O’Rourke, who succeeded Dr. David Trumpy in 1967.

Michael Geoffrey Eric O'Rourke was born on December 17, 1935 in Brisbane, the son of Michael Patrick and Irene Florence.

After graduating in 1958 he spent four years at Royal Brisbane Hospital as surgical registrar from 1959-1962 before becoming a surgical registrar at the Royal Free Hospital, London from 1963-1966. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, England, Australia and the American College of Surgeons.

While at the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh he was awarded the Henry Arthur Dalziel Fern Bursary in 1963.

 

When he was appointed to the position at Ipswich Hospital Dr. O’Rourke was a Surgical Fellow at the Lahey Clinic, Boston, USA.

During his four years as superintendent here he served as a Major with the First Australian Field Hospital for three months in Vietnam in 1971.

He resigned from the hospital in August 1971 to set up private practice. The board paid tribute to his energetic approach to all matters affecting the hospital.

Dr. O’Rourke is credited with establishing the first intensive care unit at the hospital. In 1970 he decided to establish a small intensive care ward of three beds by removing a bed from a four-bed room in the surgical ward.

Dr. O’Rourke was the senior surgeon at Mater Hospital, Brisbane, 1973-1991 plus worked as a part-time senior lecturer in Surgery and then the Clinical Tutor in Surgery at the University of Queensland.

He came out of semi-retirement as one of Queensland's most experienced surgeons to take up a four-month position as acting director of surgery for Bundaberg Base Hospital in 2005 following the Dr. Jayant Patal tragic saga.