Teh One Who Knocks
11-02-2021, 10:17 AM
By Andrew Court - New York Post
https://i.imgur.com/bYwRHgd.png
A Texan man dubbed “Polio Paul” is one of the last people in the world who still has an iron lung.
Paul Alexander, 75, has been largely confined to the contraption since he contracted the deadly disease almost seven decades ago.
The ventilators — which were invented in the 1920s — lined hospital wards amid polio outbreaks that plagued the US until the second half of the last century.
In 1959, 1,200 Americans relied on an iron lung to stay alive, but the machines gradually became less common after widespread distribution of the polio vaccine. In 1979, the US was declared polio-free, and by 2014, there were only 10 Americans left using an iron lung.
Now, according to the Guardian, Alexander is one of just two US residents who remain reliant on an iron lung, and he is eager to share his story.
Alexander contracted polio in 1952 when he was 6 years old and living with his family in suburban Dallas.
“I lost everything: the ability to move, my legs would not hold me up and then I couldn’t breathe,” he recalls in a video shared by Reuters.
As a youngster, he became paralyzed from the waist down and was rushed to hospital and placed in an iron lung.
The iron lung is an airtight capsule that sucks oxygen through negative pressure, allowing the lungs to expand and the patient to breathe, Medscape reports. The contraption is large and cumbersome and requires the person using it to lay fastened inside during operation.
https://i.imgur.com/qVfyEzR.png
Given Alexander’s paralysis, and his reliance on the bulky machine, doctors diminished their expectations for his future — but “Polio Paul” was not about to surrender.
“I never gave up, and I’m [still] not going to,” Alexander defiantly declares in the new video.
Alexander, who claims he “hated just watching TV” all day, started studying and went on to graduate from high school with honors.
His dreams of becoming a lawyer suffered a setback when he was initially denied entry to college because of his disability. However, after two years of constant persistence, he was admitted to Southern Methodist University on a scholarship.
https://i.imgur.com/Dhx4V0K.png
Alexander graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin Law School in 1984.
“Finally something good happened, I wanted to be a lawyer for a long time,” he recalled to Reuters with a smile.
Alexander spent decades working in the legal field, and was eventually able to leave the iron lung for minutes at a time after learning how to “frog breathe,” according to the Guardian.
But now that he is older, Alexander is confined to the contraption on a 24/7 basis once more. He requires around-the-clock care at a facility in Dallas.
https://i.imgur.com/I6UhhaV.png
“I do the same thing everybody else does. I wake up, wash my face, brush my teeth, shave, have some breakfast — I just need a little bit more help doing it,” he self-deprecatingly jokes in the new video.
Despite the difficulties, the plucky Texan last year published his first biography, titled “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung.”
It took him five years to complete the work, writing every word of the book with a pen attached to a stick held in his mouth.
https://i.imgur.com/e4yp2iC.png
The number of people in iron lungs continues to decrease around the world. In 2018, Missouri woman Mona Randolph was profiled by The Post about her years spent relying on the machine. She died the following year at the age of 82.
But Alexander hopes to be around for many more years yet — inspiring others with his story.
“I wanted to accomplish the things I was told I couldn’t accomplish,” he said, “and to achieve the dreams I dreamed.”
https://i.imgur.com/bYwRHgd.png
A Texan man dubbed “Polio Paul” is one of the last people in the world who still has an iron lung.
Paul Alexander, 75, has been largely confined to the contraption since he contracted the deadly disease almost seven decades ago.
The ventilators — which were invented in the 1920s — lined hospital wards amid polio outbreaks that plagued the US until the second half of the last century.
In 1959, 1,200 Americans relied on an iron lung to stay alive, but the machines gradually became less common after widespread distribution of the polio vaccine. In 1979, the US was declared polio-free, and by 2014, there were only 10 Americans left using an iron lung.
Now, according to the Guardian, Alexander is one of just two US residents who remain reliant on an iron lung, and he is eager to share his story.
Alexander contracted polio in 1952 when he was 6 years old and living with his family in suburban Dallas.
“I lost everything: the ability to move, my legs would not hold me up and then I couldn’t breathe,” he recalls in a video shared by Reuters.
As a youngster, he became paralyzed from the waist down and was rushed to hospital and placed in an iron lung.
The iron lung is an airtight capsule that sucks oxygen through negative pressure, allowing the lungs to expand and the patient to breathe, Medscape reports. The contraption is large and cumbersome and requires the person using it to lay fastened inside during operation.
https://i.imgur.com/qVfyEzR.png
Given Alexander’s paralysis, and his reliance on the bulky machine, doctors diminished their expectations for his future — but “Polio Paul” was not about to surrender.
“I never gave up, and I’m [still] not going to,” Alexander defiantly declares in the new video.
Alexander, who claims he “hated just watching TV” all day, started studying and went on to graduate from high school with honors.
His dreams of becoming a lawyer suffered a setback when he was initially denied entry to college because of his disability. However, after two years of constant persistence, he was admitted to Southern Methodist University on a scholarship.
https://i.imgur.com/Dhx4V0K.png
Alexander graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin Law School in 1984.
“Finally something good happened, I wanted to be a lawyer for a long time,” he recalled to Reuters with a smile.
Alexander spent decades working in the legal field, and was eventually able to leave the iron lung for minutes at a time after learning how to “frog breathe,” according to the Guardian.
But now that he is older, Alexander is confined to the contraption on a 24/7 basis once more. He requires around-the-clock care at a facility in Dallas.
https://i.imgur.com/I6UhhaV.png
“I do the same thing everybody else does. I wake up, wash my face, brush my teeth, shave, have some breakfast — I just need a little bit more help doing it,” he self-deprecatingly jokes in the new video.
Despite the difficulties, the plucky Texan last year published his first biography, titled “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung.”
It took him five years to complete the work, writing every word of the book with a pen attached to a stick held in his mouth.
https://i.imgur.com/e4yp2iC.png
The number of people in iron lungs continues to decrease around the world. In 2018, Missouri woman Mona Randolph was profiled by The Post about her years spent relying on the machine. She died the following year at the age of 82.
But Alexander hopes to be around for many more years yet — inspiring others with his story.
“I wanted to accomplish the things I was told I couldn’t accomplish,” he said, “and to achieve the dreams I dreamed.”