In Pictures: Exhibition charts Oswestry hospital history
- Published
An exhibition showing the history of a 113-year-old Shropshire orthopaedic hospital is to go on display. The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt hospital in Oswestry will use archives and artefacts to tell the story of orthopaedics on 10 April. This image shows a Thomas splint, designed by surgeon Hugh Owen Thomas in the 1880s, being demonstrated. The Thomas half-ring splints consist of a padded half circle of steel strapped to the hip, while an ankle strap may be fashioned from cloth.
Plaster jackets were made during the hospital's initial years in the early 20th Century. In this image a nurse and a former patient work on making one. The jacket on the right of the table appears to be a plaster mould for a patient with curvature of the spine.
Plaster could either be used to form a mould for leather artefacts or it could be used as it is today to keep the part in position whilst healing takes place. This photo shows a splint-making room in the 1920s.
Swedish remedial exercises were used at the hospital to treat children in the early 20th Century. The Swedish drill implement was used by two nurses in the photo and by Agnes Hunt, who founded the hospital along with Robert Jones.
The hospital's artefacts include the Littler Jones Abduction Arm Splint, which was used from the 1940s for shoulder injuries and cases of tuberculosis of the shoulder. The splint was made of a metal framework, with leather slings supporting the arm.
The exhibition, including items supervised above by foundation trust staff governor Dave Adams, will be on display at the trust's conference centre. Entry to the Fractured Bones exhibition will be free, but any donations will go to the hospital's bone cancer centre appeal. The trust plans to start building work for its new Oswestry Bone Cancer Centre at its site later this year, but is looking for £500,000 from the appeal to improve facilities.
- Published26 February 2013
- Published30 October 2012
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