Award of Excellence: THE PATIENS OF POLIO
In the years 1952-53, a violent polio epidemic rolled over Denmark - the worst ever in Europe. Around 7,000 Danes became ill – the vast majority of them children. Just under 350 of them died, and the survivors suffered irreversible paralysis in their bodies. Today, the children of the polio epidemic have grown old. Their lives have been marked by an illness that disabled them, but also made them resilient.
Anne Bahnson, 76-years-old
"When I was hospitalized, the doctors thought my parents had dropped me on the floor. I was 9 months old. The muscles in my hip weren't working. Only when they learned that two children from my nursery had died of polio did they realize that I was paralyzed by polio. I was a scared little girl. I never thought I would get married because I didn't think there was any guy who would fall in love with me. I was ugly and disabled."
