SickKids: The History of the Hospital for Sick Children

479 Pages·2016·70.245 MB·English

by  David Wright

SickKids
The History of The Hospital for Sick Children

SickKids
The History of
The Hospital for Sick Children
David Wright
University of Toronto Press
Toronto Buffalo London
© The Hospital for Sick Children 2016
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4426-4723-7
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Wright, David, 1965–, author
SickKids : the history of The Hospital for Sick Children / David Wright.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4723-7 (hardback)
1. Hospital for Sick Children – History. 2. Children – Hospitals –
Ontario – Toronto – History. I. Title.
RJ28.T6W75 2016 362.198920009713'541 C2016-905064-5
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to
its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the government of Ontario.

an Ontario government agency
un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario
Funded by the Financé par le
Government gouvernement
of Canada du Canada
Contents
List of Images, Tables, and Charts ...............................vi
Foreword ..................................................................ix
Acknowledgments .....................................................xi
Introduction .............................................................. 1
1 Between the Cradle and the Grave ...............................7
2 The Sweetest of All Charities .....................................25
3 The Paper Tyrant ...................................................... 47
4 Club Feet and Crooked Limbs ....................................71
5 Milk Sewage ............................................................ 97
6 Irradiation ...............................................................117
7 Iron Lungs .............................................................139
8 Visiting Hours ........................................................167
9 The Rabbit-Warren .................................................. 191
10 Blue Babies ............................................................219
11 A Sisterhood of Nursing ......................................... 243
12 Tragedy and Transformation ................................... 269
13 The Atrium ............................................................ 289
14 A Genetic Wilderness ...............................................311
15 A Hospital without Walls .........................................337
16 SickKids International .............................................353
Epilogue ............................................................... 363
Further Reading ..................................................... 369
Notes .....................................................................375
Illustration Credits ................................................. 442
Index .................................................................... 443
List of Images,
Tables, and Charts
Images
I.1 Doctor inspecting boy's arm .................................................. xvi
1.1 “Poor Tiny Tim!” ....................................................................6
1.2 49 Great Ormond Street, London ............................................12
1.3 Michael Underwood, A Treatise on the Diseases of Children .............15
1.4 “The Dance of Death” ............................................................ 20
2.1 The first hospital ................................................................... 24
2.2 Elizabeth McMaster ..............................................................31
2.3 A ward in one of the early rented homes ..................................33
2.4 Location of some of the early hospitals ................................... 43
3.1 John Ross Robertson ............................................................. 46
3.2 The Lakeside Home for Little Children .................................52–3
3.3 Nurse and doctor rowing patients ............................................55
3.4 The first trainees of the nursing school ..................................... 59
4.1 A child receiving an X-Ray ..................................................... 70
4.2 View (looking south) of The Hospital for Sick Children .............75
4.3 Photograph of surgery ............................................................77
4.4 Nurses process out of the nurses’ residence ...............................91
5.1 Outpatient entrance and dispensary plaque .............................. 96
5.2 “Slum Interior of The Ward” .............................................. 98–9
5.3 Workers in the pasteurization plant ........................................108
5.4 Student nurses in the dietetics kitchen ......................................111
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vi
6.1 The Chemical Research Laboratories .......................................116
6.2 Sunwheat Biscuit advertisement ............................................ 124
6.3 Pablum cereal ...................................................................... 129
6.4 The Dionne quintuplets with medical staff .............................. 132
7.1 Florence Charters and the “Whizzing Motor Car” .................... 138
7.2 Waiting room of the outpatient department .........................144–5
7.3 Iron lungs ........................................................................... 159
7.4 Workers construct iron lungs ..................................................161
8.1 Mother viewing child in isolation cubicle ................................ 166
8.2 Post-polio patient immobilized in a Bradford frame ................. 170
8.3 Thistletown patients and open-air therapy ............................176–7
8.4 Elsie the Cow visits Thistletown ..............................................181
9.1 Outpatients line the hallway ..................................................190
9.2 Eventual site of the University Avenue hospital ................... 200–1
9.3 Open house .........................................................................207
9.4 Women’s Auxiliary members .................................................. 213
10.1 William Mustard in the operating room .................................. 218
10.2 An early example of penicillin ............................................... 221
10.3 Bypass machine ................................................................... 231
11.1 Nurses in the classroom ........................................................242
11.2 “Now is the Time to Register” ...............................................247
11.3 Nursing residence life ...........................................................257
11.4 Women workers in the cafeteria .............................................263
12.1 Austin Cooper in media scrum ............................................. 268
12.2 Digoxin .............................................................................. 271
12.3 Susan Nelles testifying in court ..............................................279
13.1 Herbert Quinones (senior) with Baby Herbie ......................... 288
13.2 Children’s Miracle Network Telethon .....................................297
13.3 The Atrium ..........................................................................303
14.1 Susan McKellar ................................................................... 310
14.2 The cystic fibrosis team ......................................................... 316
14.3 Nancy Olivieri .....................................................................329
15.1 Rooftop heliport ..................................................................336
15.2 Sioux Lookout Zone .............................................................340
15.3 The early years of Telehealth ..................................................345
16.1 Elizabeth Street entrance, with atrium in the background ..........352
16.2 Mary Jo Haddad in Qatar .....................................................355
16.3 The Gilgan Tower ............................................................ 358–9
.
List of Images, Tables, and Charts vii
E.1 Celebrating St Patrick’s Day ..................................................362
F.1 Patient and doctor writing ....................................................368
Tables
4.1 Course of lectures delivered to nurses, 1899–1900 ......................89
5.1 Pasteurization plant daily output ............................................ 110
8.1 Thistletown patients’ surgical conditions and
approximate length of stay .....................................................184
10.1 Infant mortality table for Canada and Ontario, 1921–60 ............224
10.2 Mortality rates from all causes – O ntario ................................. 225
11.1 Hospital beds for children in Metro Toronto, 1962 ...................264
13.1 Out-of-province and out-of-country patients ...........................294
13.2 Number of beds in service, 1990–5 ......................................... 305
Charts
3.1 Sources of revenue, 1877–95 ................................................... 66
3.2 Total annual number of inpatients and outpatients, 1876–91 ....... 67
4.1 Total number of inpatients, 1883–95 ........................................ 83
15.1 Patient visits, 2000–14 ..........................................................347

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viii SickKids
Foreword
I spent thirty years at The Hospital for Sick Children, known today as
SickKids, including ten years during which I had the honour of serving as
president and CEO. I experienced the extraordinary power of determination,
great medicine, courage, and compassion. And I believed it was important
that the rich history of this revered and remarkable hospital be written. The
history of SickKids is anchored in Toronto’s past, in Canadian history, and
in an evolving health-care system. It’s the story of an expanding city, waves
of immigrants, changes in the way children (and families) have been treated,
and the increasingly sophisticated medical interventions they have received.
From its early beginnings in the 1870s, this institution proclaimed and main-
tained its deep and ambitious commitment to the well-being of children.
The story of SickKids needs to be shared, because it has touched the
lives of hundreds of thousands of children and their families; it has launched
the careers of clinical and scientific trainees who came here to learn and
grow and become great contributors to child health around the world; it
has garnered the support of philanthropists from all walks of life, who have
enabled our mission; and it has galvanized dedicated staff who are the heart
and soul of the hospital.
We are indebted to the thousands of people and organizations who have
supported our vision for “Healthier Children: A Better World” through their
generosity of time and resources. We are deeply grateful, in particular, to
Patsy and Jamie Anderson, whose kind donation made this book possible.
I thank author David Wright, a talented Canadian historian whose tireless
efforts in researching our past has inspired an optimism for our future. Finally,
I am grateful to members of my Advisory Committee – D r. Denis Daneman,
David Estok, Jim Garner, Judith John, Jeff Mainland, Dr. Susan Tallett, and
.
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