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My goodness, I remember seeing a news article about this gentleman a few years back when his iron lung needed to be repaired, but most of the people who developed or worked on them had all retired or passed. New parts needed to be made from scratch or improvised just to keep this poor man alive. That alone was an intriguing aspect of the story.
I also thought of things such as how many sizes of iron lungs would they need, as not only children got the disease but so did adults. Naturally if the severe cases persisted and the kids grew into adults, larger/longer iron lungs would be required to be transferred into. I wondered if they even made them large enough to fit a big guy like myself back in the day, and could enough negative-pressure to move the diaphragm be generated in a iron lung for people well over 6' tall.
However, I never really considered how long he was in the lung which kept him alive, but the article link below said he was only six years old when he went into it in 1952.
It is little wonder why Poliomyelitis (shortened to Polio in common parlance) scared people to death, and thank God for Jonas Salk who developed the first successful polio vaccine.
It isn’t something cheerful when anyone dies, but at a certain point everyone dies. He wasn’t the first one and will not be the last one. Wherever cemetery he is buried is full of people that died before him. It’s like when old people die. It’s sad, but one thing all old people do is eventually die. It has been like that forever. In fact, all of us are heading that way, some earlier than others but death is certain.
He had the best life under those circumstances. May he rest in peace.
Yes we are all going to die at some stage of our lives, but many of us take for granted our health, mobility, or even ease of function in our everyday lives.
Now just imagine Paul as a little 6 year old having his whole life ahead of him, without a care in the world, suddenly relegated to a life none of us can fathom in our worst nightmares.
I could be wrong, but the article implies he was the last person to be in an Iron Lung, and if memory serves me correctly, when I first became aware of him and his IL needing repair, he was unique in his plight.
Fortunately, most polio patients who used an iron lung only needed it temporarily. And I was reading that for a number of years, Paul was able to breathe on his own well enough to leave it for hours at a time. He traveled, got a law degree, etc. So while he was still paralyzed, he really did live an amazing life and I was glad to hear he was not literally trapped inside in that lung for his entire life.
An extraordinary human being!!
The disease paralyzed him from the neck down and he could not breathe on his own.
Doctors put Paul Alexander in an iron lung, a mechanical respirator that controls the air pressure around his body to help his lungs expand.
He did adapt to his circumstances, though - learned to write, type, and paint using only his mouth and a stick. He also didn't let his handicap slow down his academics.
He graduated with an economics degree from Southern Methodist University, earned a law degree from the University of Texas, passed the bar exam, practiced law in Dallas, was an advocate for polio research, and wrote a book.
He even took to social media, where he shared countless videos with messages of hope and joy, garnering thousands of followers across the world.
He even survived COVID!
An extraordinary human being!!
The disease paralyzed him from the neck down and he could not breathe on his own.
Doctors put Paul Alexander in an iron lung, a mechanical respirator that controls the air pressure around his body to help his lungs expand.
He did adapt to his circumstances, though - learned to write, type, and paint using only his mouth and a stick. He also didn't let his handicap slow down his academics.
He graduated with an economics degree from Southern Methodist University, earned a law degree from the University of Texas, passed the bar exam, practiced law in Dallas, was an advocate for polio research, and wrote a book.
He even took to social media, where he shared countless videos with messages of hope and joy, garnering thousands of followers across the world.
He even survived COVID!
Our little First World nuisances and obstacles seem very insignificant compared, yet we tend to whine about everything...
Amen to that, and I always taught the kids that others struggle to do the simplest of tasks that we take for granted. Thus, most of our first world problems are not worth complaining about.
Heck I remember when my son was in the children's hospital with a broken leg for a few days, and you would see these kids with all sorts of medical maladies that were severe and life threating.
That is why our favorite charities are St Jude, Make a Wish, and Shriners Hospital, knowing how fortunate our kids and those of our siblings are to be healthy.
As to Paul's life, I am glad to now know he was able to as much with his life as he did. You are indeed on the money when calling him extraordinary.
Polio is a scourge we can rid the globe of forever, if only we get enough people vaccinated.
WHO is getting there with eradication, though the Pandemic was a big set back.
There are 3 strains of polio and 2 have been eradicated globally.
Quote:
wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and wild poliovirus type 3 was eradicated in 2020. As at 2022, endemic wild poliovirus type 1 remains in two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
My husband was president of our local Rotary group and we were very active in the organization for many years. Rotary was instrumental in getting the vaccine out all over the world. Often in pop culture, groups like Rotary are lampooned but many people are unaware of the amazing work that they do with donated dollars from the members themselves and matching contributions from other generous people and organizations.
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