“…the real angels of mercy in the field of poliomyelitis”
The polio crisis tested the state of physical therapy education in America. Throughout the 1930s and the 1940s, the campaign to eradicate polio gained recognition as entertainers and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt added their voices to the national conversation. Bouvé-Boston School of Physical Education partnered with prominent Boston institutions, such as Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University, and out-of-state institutions, such as the Kosair Hospital for Crippled Children in Kentucky. Coupled with previous clinical experience, courses on infantile paralysis readied Bouvé students for compassionate treatment of poliomyelitis patients.
Bouvé coordinated with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes) to send physical therapy students on two-month assignments to emergency hospitals throughout the country. Under the supervision of a Georgia physician, twelve students traveled to Hickory, North Carolina, where they treated patients and received lessons in the Kenny method of muscle re-education. According to a local newspaper, the children received “the best physical therapy treatment possible in the nation.”
Ily Record, 1945
