Reflections on rehabilitation: the AB Wallace lecture to the British Burn Association April 2003

Abstract

Not only was Alexander Burns Wallace CBE, president of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, but he was also the general secretary of the International Society of Burn Injuries from its inception in 1965 to his death in 1974 [1,2]. It is in memory of him that the memorial lecture was introduced in 1980. When I was invited to make this presentation my first reaction was one of utter shock, and surprise, as I had never before imagined that any physiotherapist, let alone this one, would be invited to follow distinguished colleagues and pass on their thoughts on burn care during this session. I suppose that reticence comes from the training and early working experience of my generation of physiotherapists. I suspect that the physiotherapists trained more recently would be less surprised to be invited to talk, and that shows how far we have all progressed in working together as a proper team, where all views and experience are of value and are counted as such. When I began to formulate my ideas about what I would say, the God Janus, after whom the month of January is named, sprang to mind. He was the mythical, two-headed Roman God who had the ability to look forwards as well as backwards. As our view of today is formed by our experience of the past and colours our view of the future, this illustration seem appropriate as a basis on which to structure my presentation, which is about burn rehabilitation; how I have experienced it, and how I would like to see it develop in the future. When I was 8 years, I vividly recall the shock of seeing my first burn. I had been admitted for a minor operation to a Royal Air Force hospital. In those days, and in that hospital,