Bulldozers advancing on Middlemore Hospital

By FRANCESCA MOLD

On May 3, 1947, while touring the new Middlemore Hospital, 20-year-old Esme Green discovered a burning desire to become a nurse.

A few days later she became the first student nurse in Ward 2, taking care of soldiers recovering from injuries suffered during the Second World War.

More than 53 years later, the Papakura woman took a sledgehammer to the ward walls at a party to celebrate its demolition.

The ward, which later became a children's unit, will be gutted and bulldozed next week so a new adult medical unit can be built.

Patients have been transferred to the nearby state-of-the-art Kidz First Hospital.

At the demolition party yesterday, Mrs Green, staff and patients wrote messages on the walls before slamming into them with the hammers and pickaxes.

Some of the messages came from former patients, including one from 12-year-old Joel who advised: "Don't pick on your sister when she's holding a baseball bat."

It was an emotional experience for Mrs Green, who walked through the ward remembering trauma, joy and tragedies.

"Middlemore was our home. We were a family and we still are today."

She remembers having to wear a blue uniform while travelling to and from work, then changing into a white version while on duty.

Nurses wore turbans and beige lisle stockings - boiled white in the ward steriliser or over a bunsen burner.

Mrs Green and her colleagues earned 33 shillings a fortnight.

They played many pranks on patients and one another.

She remembers one nurse driving her baby Austin car up a side ramp into the lift so she could show the patients.

Mrs Green says many of the patients in the early years were in hospital for a long time, so nurses developed great friendships with them and would often sneak the soldiers out in their wheelchairs to watch films in Otahuhu.

"It was a wonderful time. We had a great deal of fun. I'm just sad to see it gone."