Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Foreword

The annual report of the Surgeon-in-Chief is of great interest to me because it shows that for the third consecutive year of its operation the Foundation has shown a steady growth.

It is constantly serving an ever increasing number of handicapped people who are apparently improving in health. Furthermore, the fact that many former patients return from time to time for treatment would seem to indicate that they have obtained definite benefit from Warm Springs.

Many of the friends of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation have not yet had the opportunity to inspect our plant and to observe our method of treatment at first hand. Our Trustees felt that these people would like to read Dr. Hubbard's report because it is a concise statement of our progress during 1929.

We have therefore prepared it for distribution together with photographs of the staff.

Faithfully yours,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
For the Trustees

Honorable FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President,
Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, Inc.
Executive Mansion, Albany, N. Y.

My Dear Mr. Roosevelt:

I beg to submit the following report of the Medical Department for the year ending December 31, 1929:

Patients

The close of 1929 marks the completion of the second full year of operation of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation for the after treatment of patients who have had poliomyelitis and other diseases of a similar type. It is gratifying to note that there has been a steady increase in the number of patients who have been coming to us for treatment.

In the nine months of operation in 1927 there were 106 patients; in 1928, 151; and in 1929, 215.

On January 1, 1929, there were 31 patients at the Foundation, all of whom had come in 1928 and remained over Christmas and the New Year. In 1928 there were 14.

The new arrivals by months were as follows:

Arrivals

Departures

Thirty patients arrived twice during the year and either departed twice or remained January 1st, 1930.

The length of stay for patients who came for treatment varied from less than one week to 52 weeks, the former a patient coming just at the close of the year.

The total weeks treatment was 3520 or an average of 17 weeks per patient.

There were 178 cases of poliomyelitis and 37 cases not poliomyelitis. The males numbered 108 and the females 107. Of the 1 78 poliomyelitis cases 86 were males and 92 females; thus for the third time demonstrating that polio is almost equally divided between the sexes.

Of the 215 patients 137 came for the first time in 1929. 59 had been at Warm Springs in 1928 and 1929, 15 in 1927, 1928 and 1929, and 4 in 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929.

The fact that 78 of the patients, or a little over 36%, were here for treatment during one or more previous years is very interesting, for it does not seem probable that so many would come such a long distance as most of them do, and at considerable expense, unless they or their parents believed that they were deriving more benefit from this treatment than from any other method.

The age groups are as follows: --

A study of this table shows that 100 of the patients or nearly 50% were between the ages of 15 and 30, and 163 or 75 % were over 15 years of age. The majority of those over 30 years of age were in the non-polio group. Very little provision has been made in this country or any other for the after care and treatment of the adolescent and adult paralytics as practically all of the institutions take only children.

The adult case presents the most difficult problem in home care, so that I feel we are doing a real service in providing adequate care and treatment for these patients.

The classification according to the parts affected on admission is as follows -- polio cases only: --

This table shows that the majority of the polio cases were of the severe type involving a large number of muscles.

The date of onset of the attack of poliomyelitis varied from less than one year to over 40 years.

Number of years since attack and previous to admission in 1929: --

Eleven patients, or a little over 6%, came within less than a year after their attack, sixty-four, or 36%, within two years and 105, or 60%, within 5 years.