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Paul Alexander was a 6-year-old boy when he contracted polio. As a result of the infection, he was paralyzed and the child was unable to breathe independently. As with other young polio patients, Paula was also placed in the so-called the iron lung, which is an early version of the respirator. Today Alexander is one of the few of this group still alive. Still, after almost 70 years, the same apparatus breathes for him.
- Polio is an infectious disease, epidemics of which in the second half of the XNUMXth century contributed to the deaths of children and adolescents in Europe
- There is now a polio vaccine that children receive on the immunization schedule
- Paul Alexander, however, was born too early. In those days, polio was deadly, and he paid for the infection with health and fitness. He had to spend his entire adult life in a claustrophobic machine
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Paul Alexander – a boy in an iron lung
The 1952 summer in Texas was hot, but the state was under a lockdown that we know from previous coronavirus pandemic waves. Public swimming pools, cinemas, bars and bowling alleys remained closed due to the spreading epidemic of a dangerous viral disease – polio. It was in the 50s that the peak was reached – most children became infected and died as a result of a viral infection.
Among the unfortunates was 6-year-old Paul Alexander. As described in The Guardian, the boy’s disease began with a pain in the neck and a fever. Paul was put in bed to heal, but his symptoms continued. The doctor examining him knew that the boy had polio, but advised the family not to send him to the hospital. There were so many sick children there that Paul had a better chance of recovering at home, under the care of his relatives.
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However, the following days brought a deterioration of the child’s condition. After five days, the 6-year-old was no longer able to hold the crayon in his hand. He couldn’t swallow anymore. Then the parents decided to take the child to the hospital despite the doctor’s recommendation. Although the medics did not have the time or place to see him, the visit to the facility saved his life. After Paul began to choke in the waiting room, he underwent a tracheotomy.
The boy woke up after three days. It turned out to be in a metal “can”. So were the other children who lay in the room with him. They were iron lungs.
Iron lung – respirator for children with polio
The iron lung was created by Phillip Drinker and Louis Shaw in the first half of the 1928th century. Resuscitation equipment was first used in XNUMX and it was then that the machine began to be mass-produced. It was used extensively in the 50s and 60s when small polio-infected patients were placed in an iron lung.
As a result of the disease, the children were unable to breathe on their own. The iron lungs were supposed to do it for them, while the young patients recovered under the supervision of doctors. In principle, under such a ventilator, they could only lie down and wait for their condition to improve (although this was not always successful; many of the little patients died). As this happened, the children were released from the iron lung and were allowed to return home. However, not all of them. Some of them have never been able to breathe on their own, so they had to spend their entire lives in an iron lung. This was the case with Martha Ann Lillard (in 2013, she was 60 years behind her in the “can”) and Paul Alexander, who in 2020 had already lived like that for 68 years.
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Life in an iron lung. Paul Alexander has learned to breathe again to get a dog
Two years after Paul was placed in an iron lung, the doctor who looked after him made a deal with him: if he could learn to breathe on his own for three minutes, he would be able to get a puppy from her. It was extremely motivating for the boy. A year later he had his beloved bitch – a boxer named Ginger.
But Paul did not stop at this success alone. He decided that he would learn to breathe long enough to be able to leave the iron lung for longer. It also worked. The next step was to start education. Paul eventually graduated from college and became a lawyer. The iron lung was with him all the time – he had to come back to it every day and also spend the nights in it, because when he slept, he couldn’t control his breathing.
After decades of active life, however, Paul had to permanently return to the iron lung. It became impossible for him to breathe independently. In 2020, his story was described by The Guardian. At that time, Paul Alexander was still alive and worried about the pandemic. When polio was rampant in Texas, he was at risk because he was a child. The second epidemic in his life also targeted him. After all, the elderly and people with comorbidities are most worried about the coronavirus. And Paul Alexander belongs to both of these groups.
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