Childhood hospital stays remembered
From sick children to crash victims, and even Dr Who himself – thousands in Maidstone owe their thanks to the NHS, which celebrates its
75th anniversary this July. To commemorate the milestone, Maidstone Museum is appealing for memories of the County Town’s hospitals, to help create a special anniversary exhibition, and the Messenger and KentOnline has asked for readers' help to boost the appeal.
Former staff members and patients are asked to get in touch with their stories from any of Maidstone’s NHS sites past and present, including Linton Hospital, Kent County Ophthalmic and Aural Hospital, West Kent General Hospital, Maidstone General Hospital, Oakwood
Hospital, Preston Hall, and the former Kent County Sanitorium near Lenham.
Among former Maidstone patients was Sharon Winter, who recalled going into the West Kent Hospital in 1969. “I had a car accident at the top of Oxford Road. I suffered an open fracture and spent four months in the children’s ward,” she said.
“Mr Shepard was my consultant.”
She added: “I always remember that if you got moved to the balcony you were going home. “My mum spent some time in Linton Hospital in 1968. The physios had to teach her how to walk again after having suffered a paralysis.”
Sharon isn’t the only one to remember a Mr Shepard, or Mr Shepherd - perhaps former staff members can clarify the spelling of the memorable consultant - at the West Kent Hospital, which was based in Marsham Street.
Carol Wright said: “Mr Shep
herd saved my arm after a nasty accident at school, in the West Kent.
“Fant Lane fever hospital was at the bottom of our gardens and I worked for Maidstone Hospital for 15 years in the maternity dept - I loved it.”
And Joanne Newman said: “I had a leg operation in West Kent hospital in 1967. Mr Shepherd was my surgeon.” Of course, not all patients recall their hospital visits as favourable experiences, and some memories show how the treatment of certain illnesses has moved on.
Carol Lockwood recalls being put in isolation when she had scarlet fever.
“I went into Linton hospital with scarlet fever in about 1950 when I was eight,” she said. “I remember being carried out of the house over the ambulance man's shoulder and being in a large ward with older women.
“There were no nurses in the ward, we had to shout to them, and when Mum visited she had to stand outside the window and shout to me as she was not allowed in. “My toys had to go through a steriliser, and she told me she had made me some little cakes, but I never received them.
“The food was awful and I hated it in there.”
She also recalled bedrooms being fumigated using “brown sticky paper all round the frame, smoke through the keyhole and then that taped up too” - and said she was glad to eventually get out after about a week on the ward.
“I am now 80 and haven't forgotten it,” she added.
“I know I came out with a sore between every toe, and that my
scarlet fever returned after I got home, but mum refused to let me go back there.”
Evelyn Church remembered a similar experience, adding: “I also had scarlet fever in 1950 but was taken by ambulance to the isolation hospital in Barming which later became the maternity hospital.
“My baby brother had it first and was taken into hospital on Christmas Day and I was taken in the following day.
“We were in a little side room on our own.
“My parents were not allowed in and had to stand outside in the snow and look at us through the window.
“Our bedrooms and all our presents had to fumigated. “Then in 1954 I spent three months in the West Kent Hospital with rheumatic fever. I had to lie perfectly still all that time but luckily made a good recovery.”
But there are also memories of fun times too, with Dorothy Bridger recalling: “I was Cinderella in a pantomime at Preston Hall in the 1950s. It was performed by ladies in the British Legion.
My mum was Buttons, my auntie was the Fairy Godmother and my sister-in-law was one of the Ugly Sisters. “I have great memories of the fun we had rehearsing and entertaining at other clubs as well.”
Others like David Woodcock have been repeat visitors to a number of the old hospitals, and Mr Woodcock admitted he wouldn’t be here to tell his tales without their help.
“I think I’ve been treated in all of them at one time or another over the last 72 years,” he said.
“From stitches to a split mouth when I was five at the old West Kent, to various visits to the ophthalmic with foreign objects in my eyes, physio at Preston Hall.
“The last one was operations and treatments following a motorcycle accident in 2011 that kept me as a patient until 2016. My medical file had to be wheeled on a trolley.
“At various times the NHS and Maidstone hospitals have literally saved my life.”
Martin Hemsley was also a patient at the West Kent Hospital
and appreciated his treatment – mostly.
“I had my appendix out in the old West Kent, was on an adult ward even though I was 13,” he said.
“I had a huge plaster over the stitches.
When they came to remove it she promised to do it slow and careful. Did she hell, one quick rip. Nice people though.
“I used the casualty a few times too. I had an aunt who was an orderly there.
“I went there after falling of my motorbike and needed an xray. The man in front of me had broken a finger and the radiologist was trying to spread his hand to get a good image. “Waiting outside we all clearly heard him shout, ‘the fxxxxxg finger is broken without you trying to bend it.’ “All went very quiet.”
John Ayre recognised a fellow patient during the early 70s, having been admitted to West Kent Hospital after a motorbike accident in 1973.
“I was sent to Linton Hospital to recover,” he recalled. “William Hartnell, the first Dr Who was in there at the same time, on Headcorn Ward.” Mr Ayre recalled the legendary actor had lost weight, and although he would leave hospital on that occassion his failing health would see him readmitted permanently in 1974.
He sadly died a year later, although as all Dr Who fans know, The Doctor can never really die – he simply regenerates and finds a new incarnation.
Hopefully the NHS can follow suit. To contribute to the planned exhibition, you can contact the Museum team with your stories and digital photographs by email sent to alexgurr@maidstone.gov.uk
‘I know I came out with a sore between every toe, and my scarlet fever returned after I got home, but mum refused to let me go back there’