The Last Few Polio Survivors – Last of the Iron Lungs | Gizmodo

how we always horrible disease I cannot do period a lot have you made it she does about polio know what it is Paul Alexander is a polio survivor who spins nearly all day every day inside his iron lung at home in Dallas Texas the disease paralyzed fall from the neck down so the machine helps him breathe by using negative pressure to force his body to take in air he was only six years old when he caught Palio in 1952 one of the worst outbreak years in US history when I first Rankin woley though I was just kidding I can be jealous like he came to feel a little bit you know bumps on my face again she doesn't eat giving away the bed how is he takes five days I lost everything put these they finally relax they are two three I got him with God like my bus of the God which left me in the yard walk for us my parents were so afraid of the mysterious deadly disease that they kept their children from playing with others pools theaters camps even schools shut down everybody was petrified the concept of polio kind of dominated the suburb they parents freaked out if the kid got to sniffles but just a few months after Paul contracted the disease Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine for polio today Paul is one of the last living polio survivors who has such a bad case of paralysis that he still relies on a relic of that dark time he can leave the device only for a few hours at a time with tremendous difficulty he relies on his longtime caretaker to do just about anything that he can't do with his own mouth but the iron lung hasn't stopped Paul from living a full life he went to law school passed the bar exam and started his own practice come into my office they say and I tell them I thought he could handle that [Music] right at this point the last iron lung was manufactured about half a century ago so Paul has struggled to find people who know how to repair the antique he became so desperate for help his friend posted a YouTube video of Paul explaining that his iron lung was falling apart in hopes that a machinist who knew how to help would see it but it wasn't until he met local mechanical engineer Brady Richards two years ago that Paul was able to stop worrying about his iron lung this is the instructions for the day so that's how we determine how was supposed to work Brady refurbished the machine in a garage where he also works on hot rods and racecars this was the one Paul was originally in it's getting worn out it's leaking really bad and doesn't produce enough pressure that's why we took him out of this one and put him in the restored one the biggest challenge really was the lack of parts it wasn't the big parts it's the small parts nobody's got so we have to make them ourselves my life would be juice I look year's we are barely a generation past one of our country's most frightening epidemics so close that some of its victims are still living in the archaic machines of that era but for many it's a forgotten history polio is still a major concern in some developing countries some experts say it's possible a new polio epidemic could happen in the u.s. as more and more parents are opting out of immunizing their children know I was thirsty Afghanistan forever oh those still happy somebody carried the virus who come to America that just in fact one child it always takes one child [Music] this is appalling it's not a fun trick real Paul just finished writing a memoir using only his mouth he hopes it will help people understand what it's like to live with polio and why we must continue the fight to eradicate it globally I've always been inquisitive person my parents taught me to be to use my intelligence of my energy to be productive I've never thought of myself as a [ __ ] that's not what I'd sees the news because I played colors in the play out of those people's perceptions I got disabled or not let it be get up quickly at least most people's lives except I have experience everything good like that you have endured I'm Paul Xavier he would be [Music]

Channel: Gizmodo

Views: 42,440,350

Keywords: gizmodo, polio, polio vaccine, vaccination, anti vaccination, anti vaxxers, iron lung, POLIO EPIDEMIC, PAUL ALEXANDER, POLIO SURVIVOR, ANTI VACCERS, AUTISM VACCINE, ANTI VACCINE, CIDC, POLIOSIS, POLIO VIRUS, POLIO SYMPTOMS, POLIO DEFINITION, iron lungs, iron lung survivor, polio survivors, iron lung user, iron lung man, iron lung person, iron long history, the last of the iron lungs, iron lung gizmodo, antivax, antivaxxers, what is polio, what are iron lungs

Id: gplA6pq9cOs

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 20 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/ErshinHavok]

Hell of a badass dude. I think a lot of people would choose death over living with that virus. But he not only stuck it out, he made a better life for himself than most able-bodied people! I mean shit, I'm not a lawyer. I haven't written a book. Glad he found someone to fix that Iron Lung, anyone that makes the most of that situation deserves to live as long as they damn well want to.

[u/marsglow]

What I want to know is why is the dude still using an iron lung- isn’t there better technology now?

[u/DonBiggles]

There are many living polio survivors. As of late 2017, there were at least three using iron lungs.

Edit: To add on to the comments below, my great aunt survived polio. She lost the use of her legs, but otherwise, she's alive and well.

[u/zZShortCircuitZz]

Vaccinate your kids

[u/[deleted]]

Last living with a case that bad*. My grandmother is a polio survivor and she's 80. It affected her entire right leg. Totally paralyzed from the right side of her pelvis down from age 6. She had over 50 experimental surgeries as a part of a trial experiment program and it never helped. Still to this day she walks on forearm crutches. Had kids. Drives with just her left leg. Lived the life she wanted. To us kids, she was "normal" until I noticed others looking at her and even sometimes laughing at her for walking on crutches. People can be cruel. As a kid we'd play with her crutches just thinking it was a toy, or perhaps just a normal thing some older folks used. She never told us otherwise because she never made it an excuse to not live normally. Then I grew and learned what she went through and it hit me, and I learned how bad that disease was in that era.

Polio sucks. But she's my last living grandparent and she never once let anyone discount her lifestyle because of her disease. She did everything she wanted to do, likely knowing how much worse it could've been despite the hardship and difficulty of living her everyday life. She got lucky compared to this gentleman, I feel for him and his family.

[u/harbltron07]

When he was typing that shit was sad. Poor guy someone should get him an Oculus to type and just browse the internetz.

[u/[deleted]]

And a good day to you sir!

[u/giverofnofucks]

Studies show that vaccines cause not having to spend almost the entirety of your life stuck in a giant metal tube.

[u/[deleted]]

My dad is a polio survivor. He conracted it in Indio, California in 1963 when he was three years old. He survived relatively unscathed save for one leg that was affected, and he's been lucky enough not to have more than a slight limp, and had to use not more than a simple brace so far in his life. He's almost 58 now.