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Date: 20 Sep 2001

From: TB sanatorium patients (New Zealand) oral history project

By: Norcliffe, Billy, active 1950-2001

Reference: OHInt-0837-04

Description: Interview with Billy Norcliffe about his experiences as a tuberculosis (TB) patient in the early 1950s. Mentions he was living in Kaimata near Greymouth with his wife and two young children, building their house and working for the Electricity Department, when he developed TB. Talks about being in an isolation unit in Grey Hospital for about a month, then being sent to Cashmere for treatment. Refers to complete bedrest for several months and having a lung collapsed. Discusses how patients spent their time, and occupational therapy in the middle unit when he was recovering. Refers to being sent home after a few months, and continuing to have X-rays, tests for reinfection and management of the collapsded lung for a long time. Comments on the people who had rallied round to help his wife while he was sick. Discusses trying for a long time to get another job, always mentioning in his applications that the had had TB, and eventually getting a job at Addington which allowed him to move to a drier climate. Interviewer(s) - Sue McCauley Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-012726 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s) - printed. 1 Electronic document(s) - transcript. 1 interview(s). Physical Description: Textual file - Microsoft word Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-4266, OHDL-000898. Search dates: 1950 - 2001

Date: 3 Sep 2001 - 03 Sep 2001

From: TB sanatorium patients (New Zealand) oral history project

By: Ohlsen, Barrie Thomas Frederick, 1931-; Ohlsen, Zoe Lyle, active 1950-2001

Reference: OHInt-0837-14

Description: Interview with Barrie and Zoe Ohlsen about their experiences as a tuberculosis (TB) orphan (Barrie) and as tuberculosis (TB) patients in the 1940s and 1950s. Barrie talks about his parents dying of TB when he was a child and having no recollection of them. Refers to living in the the Fresh Air Home for children of TB patients at Cashmere with his sister, and later being moved to the Methodist Orphanage and Children's Home while his sister was taken in by an aunt. Discusses his life in the orphanage, food, discipline, and occasional visits to relatives. Barrie refers to leaving the orphanage when he was 15 and being admitted to the sanatorium in 1949 after coughing blood. Comments that he had trouble getting a job after he was discharged. Talks about being admitted to Coronation Hospital a second time, by which stage there were drug treatments for TB, and meeting Zoe there. Zoe talks about her experience as a TB patient - the shock of the diagnosis, bed rest, mass x-rays and other patients dying. She discusses visitors, and recreation and entertainment for the patients. They talk about romances in the "san", gambling, occupational therapy, food, Dr MacIntyre and the nursing staff. Barrie refers to staying with Zoe's mother when he was discharged and getting married in 1956. He talks about a recurrence of TB when it migrated from one lung to the other, and having surgery. Discuss starting their married life with very little money, gradually getting established and having children. Barrie reflects on talking to service clubs about his experiences as a TB patient. Interviewer(s) - Sue McCauley Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-012738 - OHC-012739 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s) - printed. 1 Electronic document(s) - transcript. 1 interview(s). Physical Description: Textual file - Microsoft word Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-4276, OHDL-000908. Search dates: 1931 - 2001

Date: 1 Oct 2001 - 01 Oct 2001

From: TB sanatorium patients (New Zealand) oral history project

By: Reeve, Betty Margaret, active 1947-2001

Reference: OHInt-0837-13

Description: Interview with Betty Reeve about her experiences as a tuberculosis (TB) patient in the late 1940s. Refers to being diagnosed with TB in 1947 when she was eighteen years old, and being admitted to Cashmere Sanatorium. Comments on being devastated at being cut off from the outside world for 12 months with the first two months as total bed rest. Talks about the friendly patients in the women's ward who helped her forget her self pity. Mentions patients came from as far away as Wellington and the West Coast. Comments that she was not allowed to knit while on bed rest but could read magazines, and that she had few visitors. Mentions the relief she felt when she was allowed to get up for an hour a day. Refers to having a lung collapse or pneumothorax, and needing follow-up treatment for it for three years. Discusses moving to the "top san" where she had a single room and patients could socialise during the day and do knitting or needlework. Comments she was moved down to the "middle san" where patients "hardened off" in huts with doors always open. Refers to being discharged from hospital after a year, and having to reconnect with friends whose lives had moved on. Talks about having regular check-ups until she was declared fit to work again, and going back to Coronation Hospital to train as a nurse. Describes an occasion when a patient haemhorraged badly when she was on night duty, and another patient haemhorraging and dying before any other staff arrived. Talks about leaving after two years to get married and getting pregnant shortly afterwards. Refers to needing regular check-ups during her first pregnancy and being advised not to breastfeed. Reflects on how she matured during her time as a patient and a nurse. Interviewer(s) - Sue McCauley Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-012737 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s) - printed. 1 Electronic document(s) - transcript. 1 interview(s). Physical Description: Textual file - Microsoft word Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-4275, OHDL-000907. Search dates: 1947 - 2001

Date: 18 Sep 2001

From: TB sanatorium patients (New Zealand) oral history project

By: Rowley, Olive Joyce, 1921-2004

Reference: OHInt-0837-15

Description: Interview with Joyce Rowley about her experience as a tuberculosis (TB) patients in the 1940s and 1950s. Talks about the shock of her diagnosis and being admitted to Coronation Hospital on May 10th 1946, at a time when she had been married for three years. Comments on having full bed rest on an open balcony, the comparative luxury of the "upper san" once she was transferred there for a few weeks, and the strict and spartan "middle san" that was the final recovery section. Mentions patients dying, and mothers not seeing their children. Discusses the staff, friendships with other patients, and patients' chores in the middle san. Talks about having one day a fortnight out of hospital when she was in the middle san, and being discharged after 13 months. Refers to having a pneumothorax, and needing continued treatment after discharge. Refers to having a lung removed later, a few months after having a baby prematurely. Comments on not seeing her baby for many months, and on the contribution and attention of her husband while she was in hospital. Refers to finding out years later that her mother had had TB when she was born. Reflects on TB having taken ten years out of her life. Interviewer(s) - Sue McCauley Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-012740 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s) - printed. 1 Electronic document(s) - transcript. 1 interview(s). Physical Description: Textual file - Microsoft word Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-4277, OHDL-000909. Search dates: 1946 - 2001