Elizabeth Kenny

Elizabeth Kenny was born in Warialda, Australia in 1880. After falling off a horse as a child, she studied the anatomy books of the doctor with whom she stayed throughout her convalescence and thus became interested in the workings of the human body. Kenny became a nurse in 1909, working at a Cottage hospital in Clifton, Australia. There, she saw many children with polio, treating them using the unconventional technique of applying hot compresses and weights to their legs. Kenny’s methods were ultimately used on thousands of polio patients around the world before the polio vaccine eradicated the disease, and her principles of muscular rehabilitation became the foundation of modern physical therapy.