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At Fyfield many children with various chest complaints receive special attention.
The physiotherapist gives guidance to the nursing staff so that they can continue the
relatively simple treatment in between her visits. The nursing staff have carried out
this treatment in a most satisfactory manner. Forty children were treated at the Fyfield
Open Air School, 280 treatments being given. The physiotherapist made seven visits to the
school during the year, and 40 cases were reviewed and advice given to the nursing staff
who carried out 280 simple treatments..
HEART DISEASE AND RHEUMATISM.- All conditions of the heart and circulation are
grouped together under one heading on the child's medical schedule. During the year under
review 63 cases were referred at Periodic and special inspections for treatment and 74 for
observation - these being only a few more than last year and only a third and a half
respectively of the figures for 1952. Separate statistics are not available for the
individual conditions making up this total, but it may be said that most of the defects
consist of cases of anaemia, chilblains, and functional disturbances of the heart of no
serious import, and relatively few are organic lesions due to the effects of rheumatism.
An analysis of cases seen by the paediatrician for the first time during the year shows
that only 6 children were found to have a heart lesion - 1 was of congenital origin, 1
due to rheumatism which needed a restricted curriculum on account of its severity, and in
4 cases the lesions were so slight as to be of no real significance. Last year the picture
was very similar. Rheumatic fever, with its serious heart complications, is much less
frequent than it was even a few years ago: in fact, in the country in general, there has
been a substantial reduction in the number of children with rheumatic fever during the
past two decades. Restrictions in activity are no longer being imposed because of heart
murmurs of doubtful significance.
No case of organic heart disease was recommended for heart hospital schools but 1
boy with this condition was admitted to the day special school during the year. Three
girls were known to have been admitted to the Children's Heart Home, West Wickham, by
the Regional Hospital Board.
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