LibGuides: Sister Elizabeth Kenny: Leader in Physical Therapy: Overview

Overview

Sister Elizabeth Kenny discovered a revolutionary treatment for infantile paralysis and devoted her life to the dissemination of the treatment throughout the U.S. and abroad. After doctors on the east and west coasts dismissed her ideas, Sister Kenny came to Minnesota in 1940. She worked with doctors at the Mayo Clinic and in Minneapolis and opened the Sister Kenny Institute in 1942. She went against traditional treatments for polio and urged that the stricken limbs be exercised. This procedure opened the modern-day era of rehabilitation medicine and physical therapy.

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