exist through aglobal pandemicwill have a wealth of unintended consequences confident and negative , but one will certainly be a greater taste for those in the aesculapian profession — from those on the front lines treating patients to those researcher laboring behind the scenes , seek to set apart viruses and to discover vaccinum both now and in the past .
madam Jean Macnamarawas one such heroine . She witness and made remarkable contributions in her chosen professing — medicament — principally in the area of polio research , and her work with patient role with fond or concluded paralysis .
Macnamara was hold in Victoria , Australia , April 1 , 1899 . She was born into a family that prized hard work and breeding , and she excelled at both . Macnamaraattended Presbyterian Ladies Collegeand became the editor of the schooling ’s cartridge , gain the prize for general excellence . She signalise herself at the University of Melbourne , graduating in 1922 with point in both surgery and anatomy . She pop off on to become a resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital .
Macnamara was just 23 when she was appoint house physician at the Royal Children ’s Hospital in May 1923 , where she worked until 1925 . It was a critical prison term as a ugly disease — acute anterior poliomyelitis , also known as polio — was drag in the globe . After leave behind the hospital , Macnamara operate as a clinical help at the Children ’s outpatients ' doc and entered individual practice to focalize on poliomyelitis patients .
But it was in Macnamara ’s research where her light gleam brightest . It was her conclusion that immune serum needed to be used in polio treatment during the pre - paralytic stage . She published and defended her results in both Australian and British journal , though it was a treatment that was never widely administered .
However , it was her discovery in 1931 , along with Australian virologist Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet , ofmore than one strain of the poliomyelitis virusthat made her reputation . Their finding is credited as one of the first steps toward the eventual discovery of theSalk vaccinum . She traveled to England and North America on a Rockefeller Fellowship from September 1931 to October 1933 , even meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt , himself a victim of infantile paralysis .
In improver to her penetrative sake in cure disease , Macnamara sought to palliate the painful sensation and endure it allow for in its wake . She is credited with order the firstartificial gasmask ( or ventilator)in Australia . She introduce novel advance to rehabilitation and splinting damage limbs , most developed in conjugation with conversation with patients and her own splint - Almighty . Macnamara turn out to be a tireless advocate for the great unwashed with disabilities long before it was in vogue .
She wed a fellow physician , dermatologist Joseph Connor in 1934 , and in 1935 , Macnamara was appointedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( DBE)for her service to the welfare of children . She drop dead in 1968 of nitty-gritty disease .
