Time in Hospital

John Brown: Strapped to the Bed


John was born in 1944 in Cardiff. His family then moved to London when he was six months old. At age four, John contracted Polio and was sent to hospital, where he remained until he was eight. Then he attended local special schools, going on to a local mainstream college at age nineteen.

Here John remembers his time in hospital.

https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/strapped-to-the-bed.mp3

Transcript

My memories of the hospital were terrible really because all I remember – I was only nearly five, and all I remember was all these people in white coats, you know, apparently they must have been physios, trying to stand me up and putting fingers on either side and of course I’m going to fall over and – ‘cause I didn't have my mother with me. So anyway, so they told my mother that I was a scallywag and not cooperating - because I’m not cooperating with them, I will never walk. I’m a scallywag according to my mum. So, anyway that was – I was there two years eight months and most of the time I was there I remember being strapped to the bed, because I think I fell out once and they put me into a chair and I fell over, and because of that all the children in that ward were strapped to the bed. It was like being in a prison.

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