Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Issue:

Mackay and Whitsunday Life

Proserpine Doctor’s Grandmother Was First Born At Hospital 100 years ago

A recent article published by Whitsunday Life Newspaper and written by the Proserpine Museum set in motion a remarkable story of connection.

It revealed that a current Proserpine Hospital obstetrician is in-fact the grand-daughter of the first baby born at the facility 100 years ago.

The connection only became apparent when Dr Kyren (Ky) Baxendell was reading the article about the history of maternity care in the Proserpine region and noticed the maternity ward’s official opening date of 12 July 1924.

This was just one day prior to the birth of her maternal grandmother Joyce Alice Nicholas.

“My grandmother was always super proud of being born at Proserpine Hospital on 13 July 1924,” Ky said.

“She loved the fact that I was working here and said ‘you just wouldn’t believe it Ky, I was born there and now you are delivering babies there’. She just loved that.

“Now I really understand why as not everyone was born in a hospital in those days; most births were attended by untrained midwives at home.”

The first hospital maternity ward was an extension of the original Proserpine Hospital built in 1911 on the riverbank opposite the Junior Sporting Complex on Crystalbrook Road.

Ky’s beloved grandmother Joyce Bagley (nee Nicholas) sadly died in Brisbane in May this year, just two months shy of her 100th birthday.

“We combined Joyce’s 100th birthday celebration and her funeral on her actual birthday on 13 July,” added Ky.

“She had already received her letter from the King prior to passing away two months before her birthday.”

“Whenever patients come into the hospital who are around that vintage I often tell them my grandmother was born here and tell them her name.

“They often don’t remember her, but then remember her playing at the dances or remember her brother Fred Nicholas who lived in Proserpine all his life.”

Although moving to the Whitsundays in 2019, Ky feels very connected to the Proserpine community.

“From a rural doctor perspective, it’s a great hospital in that it’s a non-specialist hospital and I’m a GP obstetrician. It also has a very high birth rate at more than 300 births per year,” she said.

“I was already familiar with the Whitsunday area, we loved the coast and I knew rural doctor jobs here didn’t come up very often.

“I’m not local, but kind of, sort of am really,” she said.

“My family is local and I’m incredibly proud to be delivering babies here where my own grandmother was born.”

Dr Kyren (Ky) Baxendell and her grandmother Joyce Bagley.
Young Joyce Nicholas
Albert and Joyce Bagley wedding party in Proserpine 1945
Joyce and Albert Bagley with family (including mother Elizabeth Nicholas)

Photos supplied

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