5 Interesting Facts about Dame Jean Macnamara

Dame Jean Macnamara was an Australian medical researcher and doctor whose participation in the investigation of polio is especially important today. Google has recognized her with a Doodle on what might have been her 121st birthday on April 1, 2020.

As the world anticipates a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, it can go to medical emergencies of the past for consolation that the incredible masterminds of the sciences usually discover a cure.

As per Google, Dame Jean Macnamara applied her eager hard-working attitude to all the more likely to comprehend and treat different types of paralysis including polio.” Since, it was her work that helped lead to the improvement of polio immunization in 1955, helping shut down that scourge.

In 2018, when Dame Jean Macnamara was honored in Melbourne, her daughter, Merran Samuel stated, “Dame Jean was a humble and shy person, who was driven by a sense of duty and service. Educated on a scholarship, she was one of the first two women residents at the Royal Children’s Hospital.”

Read More: Dame Jean Macnamara: Google Doodle Celebrates Australian Medical Doctor’s 121st Birthday

This is what you have to know:

1. Dame Jean Macnamara Was Born in Beechworth, Victoria

Dame Annie Jean Macnamara was born on 1 April 1899 to John and Annie Macnamara in Beechworth, Victoria.

Her parents were “Victorian-born.” Dad was a clerk of courts named John Macnamara, and her mother was Annie. As per Ann G. Smith, writing for the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Dame Jean Macnamara’s parents originated from diverse religious backgrounds. Her dad was Catholic, and her mom Presbyterian. She was affected by both yet brought up in her mom’s religion.

In 1907, Macnamara’s family moved to Melbourne. She won a scholarship to Presbyterian Ladies’ College. Macnamara edited the magazine there and her determination and “seriousness of purpose” developed during times of war. Then she went to the University of Melbourne inevitably becoming a “resident medical officer” at a Melbourne Hospital, composed Smith.

2. A Polio Epidemic Struck Melbourne Become Dame Jean Macnamara’s Life Work

Macnamara’s graduation from medical school in 1925 agreed with a polio epidemic struck Melbourne. Additionally, she was a “consultant and medical officer to the Poliomyelitis Committee of Victoria,” according to Polio Place.

Accordingly, she started concentrating her research on polio, particularly because it was an issue for kids. In 1931, she, and later Nobel Prize champ Sir Macfarlane Burnet, distinguished more than one strain of poliovirus. This helped make ready for a vaccine 25 years after the fact.

She spent an amazing rest of her life’s work helping children and other polio survivors discover treatment and recovery.

3. Dame Jean Macnamara Also Assisted the Disabled and Discovered Medical Devices

Dame Jean Macnamara’s work wasn’t just restricted to the world of polio. As indicated by Polio Place, she “advocated the necessity for adequate aftercare of disabled persons” and requested the primary Australian artificial respirator.

The site says that she additionally was an innovator in the regions of “splinting and rehabilitation,” helping paralyzed patients recoup. She thought of “ingenious restraining devices,” the site says. As indicated by the National Library of Australia, “She established surgery in Spring Street, a clinic at Carlton and also conducted country clinics. Also, she recommended the first centre for spastic children, which opened at the Children’s Hospital in 1940. She was recognized as a world authority on infantile paralysis.”

Dame Jean Macnamara was married to a dermatologist Joseph Ivan Connor and had two kids with him.

4. Dame Jean Macnamara was Interested in One of the Ways to Eradicate Rabbits in Australia

One controversial part of Dame Jean Macnamara’s career: She was interested in eradicating rabbits, considered “pests.”

As per the National Library of Australia, she had come to America in 1933 and felt that “myxomatosis could be used to eradicate rabbits in Australia.”

It didn’t work at first, yet Dame Jean Macnamara kept on coming to the meaningful conclusion and eventually the government in Australia consented to utilize myxomatosis “to destroy the rabbit pest,” the library bio reports. As per Rabbit.org, “Myxomatosis is a virus. Wild rabbits can carry Myxomatosis, but do not become sick. Myxomatosis is fatal to domestic (pet) rabbits with a 99% mortality rate, and there is no treatment.”

5. Dame Jean Macnamara Passed Away in 1968

Dame Jean Macnamara passed away at the age of 69 from cardiovascular disease in 1968 in her South Yarra home, as indicated by her obit.

Her husband died before her in 1956.

Seven other Australian medical researchers were celebrated in the issue of a lot of four Australian stamps released in 1995. Also, Dame Jean Macnamara shows up on the 45 penny stamp with individual University of Melbourne graduate, Frank Macfarlane Burnet.

“In 1935 she was made a Dame Commander and in 1966 she became the first woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate of laws at Melbourne University,” the obit reads.