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On 24 February 2024, Cornwall Park hosted a Heritage Day to commemorate the 39th General United States Army Hospital, Cornwall Maternity Unit, later National Women’s Hospital and Cornwall Geriatric Hospital which all found their homes on Cornwall Park in the 20th century.
Our Health Journeys documented the experiences and memories of some of the hospital staff for the Heritage Day. Many staff shared anecdotes along the same themes of the hospital facilities, treatment, maternal care, toileting, and stories about some of the doctors.
Explore Part 3 featuring stories about some of the hospitals’ doctors below, head to Parts 1 and 2 for more, or click hereto listen to the stories in the staff’s own words.
A matchmaking patient
A memorable moment in Nurse Rosie Deveraux’s time at National Women’s Hospital at Cornwall Park was when a patient tried to set her up with one of the doctors doing his rounds. “A patient said to me, ‘Look at that handsome doctor over there, the one with the hands in his pockets. Bet you’d have a much better chance than me, nurse’.” Rosie remembers laughing, and when asked why it was funny she said to the patient, “Well, he’s my brother.” Within ten minutes the story had gone up one side of the ward and down the other.
At the time of the attempted matchmaking, Rosie was a student nurse at the hospital, aged 17 or 18 years old. The amusing memory stayed with her all through her career and now into her retirement.
Socks and shoes
Administrator Ngairene Rogers worked at two iterations of Cornwall Park’s hospitals: National Women’s and Cornwall Geriatric. Two doctors stuck out to her in her memories due to their socks and shoes – or lack thereof.
“I remember the arrival of Dr Newman, a new medical superintendent to Cornwall Geriatric Hospital who always rode a bicycle to work on fine days which he left propped against the fence under trees opposite the windows of the admitting office and winter or summer, never wore socks with his shoes.” Ngairene also remembers there was, “…a young house surgeon with an iron determination to become a doctor [who] also never wore socks - or shoes. Winter or summer he wore roman sandals in which he hitch-hiked to and from his home in Whangārei each weekend when he was not on duty. His widowed mother darned and repaired all his clothes and he returned to work with his rucksack filled with home baking.”
Two upsetting memories
Nurse Colleen Williams stated that a rule that was strictly observed was the presence of a nurse during intimate examinations of women’s genitalia. However, one young doctor upset her during her time in the gynaecology ward for his behaviour during these examinations. “There was a popular song about a fun fair around which had the line, ‘It's the tunnel of love…’ When we were assigned to be with him during vaginal examinations of innocent old women, he would hum the line almost under his breath as he gloved up. The women, of course, didn't see the illusion, but we would be crimson with embarrassment and too junior to protest. In the end, we pretended to ignore him.”
Another young doctor upset her during the examination of a woman who had had a miscarriage. The doctor had the sterilised speculum and accidentally dropped it on the bed. When Pat [another nurse working with Colleen] went to get another sterilised one from the tray, he said, "Oh, it's not the only unsterile thing that's been up here, nurse." Pat was furious, but we would never have thought of openly criticising the medical staff. But she later commented, "I suppose it fell on the bed and not the floor, but it was just the way he said it."
“Do you have a uterus?”
Another significant memory of Ngairene’s during her tenure at Cornwall Park’s hospitals was meeting a young Mont Liggins at the beginning of his career. “Early one evening several weeks after I started working at the hospital, a junior specialist starting his research career in gynaecological-endocrinology appeared at the enquiry window and baldly asked if I had a uterus. I replied that I did but it was still attached.”
The poorly phrased question was followed up with further information – Mont was waiting on one to arrive and asked Ngairene to let him know when it arrived. “From that moment on he regarded me as a member of the staff and continued to do so for 33 years. When he was 14 years old, he was caught by the school caretaker smoking behind the bicycle sheds at the country high school he attended and begged the caretaker not to tell his dad - it is a pity he was not scared enough to be put off smoking as he continued to do so all his life. In his long and illustrious career, he never changed, remaining a 'normal" human being, happy to continue with his school nickname of Mont, and I am very honoured and privileged to have known him.”