And when we tried to grab him with the forceps, he hoisted himself out. We thought he’d be too big, but he clawed his way out. We quickly realized that the infant was lodged in his mother’s birth canal, requiring the use of forceps to make his way out. 18 and a half bloody pounds, and I reckon at least half of that was in the shoulders! I swear on my maiden name, he was the first child to ever deliver himself. Her account of Donald’s birth is as follows: Margaret’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where she remained until her death in 1955). Fitzgerald was eager to divulge this information, it came out during her testimony at her own trial for criminal malpractice (which ultimately led to her commitment in St. In 1946, retired nurse Nelly Fitzgerald described the graphic account of his birth. Though few records of Donald’s parents exist, it has been speculated by historians that Elizabeth’s time working in the radium factory as one of Victoria’s first “radium girls” lead to Donald’s physical deformities in utero. Elizabeth tragically died in childbirth while delivering the abnormally large child. Carnarvan, was born on December 25, 1922. Many say that through his actions, he altered the spirit of Oak Bay forever.Īs follows is a biography based on journal entries and newspaper clippings from his time.ĭonald L.J. Donald never let these deformities hold him back, however, and he went on to live a rich life that left a lasting mark on his community. The official documents surrounding his birth were lost in the blazing inferno that destroyed the old Oak Bay Hospital, but those who knew Donald’s late family claimed he was born horribly disfigured. Not much is known about Donald’s early years, other than what has been gleaned through a series of somewhat dubious accounts. While Oak Bay has existed as a municipality since its incorporation in 1906, it wasn’t until Donald Carnarvan threw his first bowl on the sacred pitch that it officially entered its golden age. Few people have had as much influence on our city’s rich culture as its true founder, and yet many of today’s youth don’t even know his name. If you care about our community and history, you should be familiar with the legacy of Donald L.J. "There was one woman who the dentist went to pull a tooth and he pulled her entire jaw out when he did it," says Blum.Know your heritage, Oak Bay Celebrating the Life of Donald Carnarvon: founder of Oak Bay The Radium Girls were even told to lick their brushes to get a fine point for detail work. Radium was radioactive and caused serious deformities and sickness. Their spines collapsed."ĭozens of women died. Others took to drinking radium water, or visiting radium clinics and spas. In 1917, scores of patriotic young girls counted themselves lucky to have landed war work at a large warehouse complex in Orange, New Jersey. These treatments were strictly for the rich gram for gram, radium was the most expensive substance on earth. The pay was fantastic roughly three times the average working girls’ wage and the work was light. In the early years these girls used paint brushes that they would lick the bristles to. At a factory in New Jersey, the women sued the U.S. Many of them ended up using the money to pay for their own funerals. In all, by 1927, more than 50 women had died as a direct result of radium paint poisoning.īut Keane was among the hundreds who survived. Over the years, she had some health problems - bad teeth, migraines, two bouts with cancer. There's no way to know if her time in the factory contributed. "I was left with different things, but I lived through them. The Radium Girls and the Generation that brushed its Teeth with Radioactive Toothpaste. You just don't know what to blame," she said. The Radium Girls were so contaminated that if you stood over their. At 107 years old, she was one of the last of the radium girls.īlum says the radium girls had a profound impact on workplace regulations. By the time World War II came around, the federal government had set basic safety limits for handling radiation.Īnd, she says, there are still lessons to be learned about how we protect people who work with new, untested substances. "We really don't want our factory workers to be the guinea pigs for discovery. 'Oops' is never good occupational health policy.
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