BOPDHB History Tauranga Hospital Centennial Book | Page 19

When Mrs Mune left she was replaced by
Mrs Ferguson. Both ladies were very patient and kind
and skilfully challenged to help us keep up. A large
covered-in sun porch (a room built on the end of
Ward 1, the Children’s Ward and opposite the
Maternity Annexe) was used as a classroom for those
who could attend.
Oxygen tents, oxygen cylinders and masks were
a common sight alongside some of the medical
instruments that were used and are now on display in
the main foyer of the hospital.
Two new blocks were built adjacent to Ward 5 the
then Isolation Ward. One of the buildings became the
new Children’s Ward and the other accommodated
Crothalls cleaning personnel. Since the middle of the
1960’s the changes at the hospital have become an
ongoing project to keep up with our ever growing city.
My condition greatly improved and admission to
hospital became less.
As well as my mother before me, my sisters and I and
two of my children have all given birth at Tauranga
Maternity Annexe. My sister-in-law, a qualified
Maternity Sister, worked with special needs babies.

Recollection of an Elderly Lady,
Dorothy Smith-Durham (Hofmann)
When I was only a little girl of four years, I was taken
to Tauranga Hospital very sick with double pulmonic
pneumonia.
We travelled in an old Buick car and on the way from
Katikati to Tauranga, my parents smelt smoke coming
from the car bonnet. My father stopped the car and we
all got out. It turned out to be a rat’s nest alight, much
to my father’s annoyance. Well dad put the fire out and
we continued onto Tauranga Hospital, which comprised
of two large concrete pillars and concrete steps – very
old. I was taken in with my much loved teddy bear and
clothes, and was put into bed alongside another little
girl a little older than me. We both became good friends
over the length of time we were in hospital together.
I was spoilt; the nurses used to carry me around and sit
me on a shelf while they worked. At night I’d have three
aniseed lollies put on my bedside cupboard for bedtime.
My grandma would come to see me and one night in
particular, I was at the point of ‘passing my crisis’ as they
called it in those days, and she told me a little saying
that I had to repeat:
“Little by little, day by day, I am getting better in every
way.”
Well I turned the corner only to catch scarlet fever and
down I went again. While it slowly progressed, they
moved me out onto the sunny veranda of Ward 17,
where I had mustard packs put on my back. When I
returned home eventually, I realised I’d left my teddy
behind, which I missed!
In later years my parents bought me a celluloid doll with
a red velvet skirt, with white bunny-fur edging sewn
around the bottom of it. How I loved that doll! I always
wanted to skate like Sonja Henie, the skating star of the
year. My big brother found celluloid toys burnt brightly
and I lost her and I was very upset as you can imagine.
I later found out my teddy had been put into isolation.
I was too little to understand what that big word meant.
My time spent in Tauranga Hospital over the years as a
patient inspired me to become a nurse. Instead, as the
years changed I became a ‘Jack and Jill’ of all trades
through necessity and family. That’s life I guess. I did
end up working for the hospital as a Home Help and
cared for the elderly, which I loved.
Times have certainly changed, so has the hospital. Now
I get lost among the many corridors trying to find my
way to and fro. Oh for those old quiet days which have
now gone.

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