The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Febriuiry, 1951The Health Bulletinthey are unable to pay for the servicesneeded, application is made to the localwelfare board, which investigates thecase in question. If the child's parentsare found to be actually unable to pay,the case is certified and the child isplaced in a hospital. If the parents areable to pay all or part of the expensesincurred, an effort is made to work outa satisfactory plan for treatment.It might be well, just here, to considerthe number of clinics conducted bylocal health departments, in cooperationwith the State Board of Health and theDepartment of Vocational Rehabilitation.There are, at the present time,twenty-eight clinics, so well distributedthat each child is within sixty miles ofone of these. Taking part in the program,besides the local Public Healthstaffs, are thirty-one physicians. Theseinclude orthopedic surgeons, plasticsurgeons and pediatricians. A reportrecently prepared by the CrippledChildren's Unit shows that 11,998 examinationswere done in 1949. There were,at the last count, twenty thousandchildren on the State register.In requesting a State appropriationof one hundred thousand dollars a year,it was pointed out to the legislative appropriationscommittee that there areno existing State funds to finance surgicalcare of indigent children, withcleft palates, congenital defects, deformitiesfrom burns, and orthopedic conditionsin hospitals other than the StateOrthopedic Hospital. This hospital, locatedat Gastonia, does not have facilitiesfor all these conditions and doesnot have the capacity for all of the indigentchildren needing care for problemswhich it is equipped to handle.There have been over three thousand,five hundred cases of polio in our Stateduring the past four years. This, ofcourse, has increased the necessity fororthopedic treatment.Funds Once ExhaustedFunds from all sources were exhaustedin 1949 and the work was stoppedduring the last quarter, except foremergencies.The State Board of Health asked aone hundred thousand dollar annualappropriation by the State in matchingFederal funds for the next biennium. Itis pointed out that this may mean anadditional three hundred thousand dollars,annually, from Federal funds.Hence, this would be a sound investment,aside from the humanitarianaspects of the program. No State matchingfunds, conceivably, may mean noState Board of Health Program forCrippled Children.Now that we have considered themechanics of the program and havepointed out the desirability for adequatefunds, let us consider some of the actualwork which is done for these little ones,to set their feet in paths of usefulnessand to hold before them, as they growup, incentive enjoyed by their physicallyfit companions and school mates.Authorization for hospitalization entitlesthe child not only to treatment,including both orthopedics and plasticsurgery, but to braces, crutches, casts,orthopedic shoes, and other correctivedevices. Plastic surgery corrects deformitiesfrom burns, harelips and thelike. When the child leaves the hospital,it is subject to a follow-up program,during which systematic visits are madeto the home, to see that the orthopedicrecommendations are being carried out.From Birth to 21Most of the clinics are held in localhealth departments and all personsfrom birth to twenty-one years of ageare eligible. Incidentally, it may bepointed out that 1,253 children whoneeded treatment in 1949 did not receiveit, because of inadequate funds.Of the polio victims, many still arein need of surgery. There is more humaninterest, both concealed and visible,in the rehabilitation of childrenthan in almost any other humanitarianproblem confronting the American people.When a child is born into thisworld, it comes not of its own accord,but "of the will of the flesh." It mustaccept conditions under which it isborn, without recourse, and with noremedial measures at its command.Such children often are doomed to livesof hopelessness and their spirits compelledto live in bodies that are distorted