Following this journey, he managed to be placed as the
director of a state-of-the-art neurosurgery unit situated at Callan Park which
he convinced the New South Wales government to fund. Only two years later, he
was appointed Superintendent of Callan Park, yet two years after, he made
public allegations against the institution, claiming mismanagement, theft and
mistreatmet of patients was occurring. The New South Wales Labor Government was
then forced to hold a Royal Commission in 1961, and Harry Bailey subsequently
became well known. His accusations, however, forced him to resign and move into
private practice.
He did so at Macquarie Street, and then in 1963 began
treating patients at Chelmsford Private Hosptital in Pennant Hills with the
assistance of John Herron early on, then Ian Gardiner and John Gill later on.
Throughout his time at Chelmsford Hospital, he experimented with Deep Sleep
Therapy and Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy, and his high public profile enabled
this.
His reputation emerged from being a member of the Australian Medical
Association from 1951, the Australasian Association of Psychiatrists (later
known as the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychaitrists) from
1952, the American Electroshock Research Association, and the Pan-Pacitif
Surgical Association, as well as being the president of the Sydney Biophysics
and Medical Electrocics Society (Garton, 2007) .
My mother died in April,1972 at chelmsford hospital. She was only 34 and I was 6. I often wonder how much different my life would have been with a mother had this monster not taken her from me. I remember the night the ambulance turned up to take her. I also remember the scuffle because she didn't want to go. That was the last time I saw her, as i was dragged from her arms as she sobbed that she didn't want to leave her baby. I was an only child. I also remember waking one night, it was the only time I have ever seen my father cry. Harry Bailey was in our loungeroom talking to my father. From what I understand my father was at chelmsford when my mother was due to be woken from her deep sleep, he was in the waiting room where he was told he could see her soon she was having a cup of tea. Then he was told that she had just dropped dead as she drank her tea. They told him a blood vessel in her head had burst. My guess is that she hadn't woken at all or maybe they'd given her electric shock treatment and well and truly fried her brain. Just what you need for depression. I know its been a long time, but I hope at least one nurse or doctor associated with chelmsford reads this and realises the lives they took, the lives they never came forward and said there's something wrong, meant something to someone. They weren't just faceless figures in beds but mothers, fathers and children of people who loved them. They were husbands and wives. You brought on depression in my father, so I didn't just have to deal with losing my mother but I had to deal with my father too. My stepmother revelled in telling me over the phone that my mother didnt just die she was probably murdered , i was about 19. And I had 2 kids that didn't get to know my mother and a mother that never got to love grandchildren. She had been a living ,breathing , beautiful human being. She had beauty inside and out. She should of had 50 or more yearss of life. She has been dead longer than she had been alive. She would have been 77 this year. These are the ramblings of a disgruntled child maybe, but it is also the spreading of my wings to air myself of childhood atrocities so I can set myself free. Oh..... and just so you know.... you never beat me. I have been a strong and independent woman all my adult life. I learnt early...... life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering why the ambulance took your mother directly to a private hospital and not a public one??
DeleteI am Very sorry to hear you and your family went through this. There is no justice nor accountability for this man's actions.
DeleteI am so sorry that you. A dear little girl, your beautiful, distressed mum and anxious helpless father fell into the hands of the evil Harry Bailey. A huge part of all of your lives has been destroyed. I am sad that you and your family are still living with the consequences of his actions. Doctors sign the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. They should be jailed when they deliberately break that oath, in my opinion. Thinking of you ❤️Philippa
DeleteI'm so very sorry to read this story about your mother. A member of my extended family was also one of his victims, but she did not die. I can't believe the horror of this.
ReplyDeleteCrimes like these still happen in mental facilities all around the country unpunished, unnoticed how bad !
ReplyDelete"is the fact that he had two adopted daughters, indicating that Bailey was indeed a man with a certain level of compassion (Garton 2007)" so he robbed mothers of their daughters is an indicator of his good naturedness? Only someone who has not had a newborn forcibly removed could think taking someone's children and isolating them from is an indicator of a nice person. Just as much an indicator of someone who is a sociopath. Did not Dr Bailey consult on Crown Street Hospital, who used sedation and other restraints and brutal practice on unmarried mothers who's infants were earmarked by hospital employees for removal for forced adoption? I'd be interested to know where he procured these daughters from and his extent of involvement in "choosing" them.
ReplyDeleteClearly he had issues with professional boundaries and with women clients.
The sociopathic tendencies of people such as this man and coworkers who enabled this, including social workers, needs to be looked at. Similarly in adoption
Please don't hold up adoption as an indicator of a decent person. The willingness to violate a pregnant mothers privacy and primal and personal space on order to procure infants is in no way am indicator of decency. Let alone with the brutal and deceptive measures employed, all within the mothers knowledge nor consent , is hardly an indicator of decent. Demeaning, belittling. Condescending. Violating and brutal, yes. Decent? in no real compassionate world nor generous understanding of the word.