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Paul Alexander, popularly known as “Polio Paul,” is 77 years old and has spent the last 70 years living inside a 600-pound iron lung.
He has reportedly been doing very well in the iron lung and has refused to switch to a more advanced equipment.
In 1952, during the greatest polio epidemic in US history, Paul was 6 years old when he became infected.
The majority of the over 58,000 cases were reported to be in youngsters. Paul was named the longest iron lung sufferer by Guinness World Records in March 2023.
According to the Mayo Clinic, poliomyelitis, or polio, is spread by contaminated food and water or by coming into touch with an infected individual.
Many infected people do not become ill and show no symptoms, but those who do often become paralyzed, which may sometimes be fatal.
In 1955, a vaccination that might save lives was licensed and given to youngsters throughout the United States. The US was then proclaimed polio-free in 1979.
Sadly, Paul received the vaccination too late; he was already paralyzed from the neck down. To aid his body in fighting the infection.
He was subsequently put in an iron lung and had an emergency tracheotomy. Paul has been living off the lung ever since.
The type he is wearing hasn’t been produced since the late 1960s, while his machine was created in 1928.
Everything is enclosed by the airtight iron lung capsule, with the exception of the head. By using negative pressure to draw oxygen, it compels the lungs to expand, enabling the patient to breathe.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, Paul said that he had already adapted to his iron lung by the time more advanced devices were created.
Additionally, the latest devices need a hole in the neck, and he didn’t want to have another one.
Paul now knows how to breathe outside of the machine for a small period of time. The patient may take in oxygen one mouthful at a time by forcing.
It down the throat and into the lungs using a method known as “frog breathing,” which involves the throat muscles to push air past the vocal cords.
Paul has finished high school, gone to college, obtained a law degree, worked as a lawyer for many years, and written a memoir—all while in the iron lung.
He said, “I never gave up, and I’m [still] not going to,” in an interview from 2021.