The Man in the Iron Lung

tell y'all that my life is a perfect example the man behind me hasn't been able to breathe on his own since 1952 but that hasn't stopped him from living a great life keep watching you'll see what i mean hello my name is paul alexander but they call me the man of the iron lung paul spends almost every moment of his day in an iron lung which is the only thing that's keeping him alive that's because he's paralyzed from the neck down so without it he can't breathe the machine helps him breathe by using negative pressure to take air into his lungs this is the full story of paul it all started when paul caught the polio virus when he was just six years old during one of the worst polio outbreaks in history a time which feels all too familiar with today's coronavirus pandemic people were wearing masks offices schools and most of the world was shut down what did it feel like when you first got polio well i started feeling healthy i went inside to get bomb and she turned and looked at me and she said oh my god got my son over the next five days i lost everything the ability to move my legs would not hold me up and then i couldn't breathe he was at home under the care of his mom and dad and they realized he wasn't breathing they rushed him to the hospital and the emergency room physician examined him and pronounced him dead sometime later another doctor came through he picked me up according to my mother he ran upstairs refuge performed a tracheotomy and put me in the on this would make anyone feel like giving up but just wait you'll see that that isn't the case [Music] so i continued to fight sepal did everything he could to get better he fought against polio every day it was hard painful and tiring but i never gave up and i'm not going to 18 months later he left the hospital and came to his residence in dallas texas but his life was never going to be the same he couldn't play sports he couldn't go to church and he couldn't hang out with his friends people didn't like me very much back then i felt like they were uncomfortable around me what did you do all day all the same thing everybody else does i woke up brushed my teeth washed my face shaved had some breakfast well i just need a little bit of help too then what would you do all day well i would read or study something in the future i'd do some drawing i hated just watching tv paul worked hard to graduate with honors from high school but i did not get into college they said that i was too crippled they did not have the vaccination he didn't accept that for two years of tormenting them tonight they accepted me on two conditions squirm did i take the polio vaccine it's going to get a fraternity to be responsible for finally something good happened i wanted to be a lawyer for a long time after years of hard work paul passed the bar and became a lawyer and i was a pretty damn good one too but he didn't stop there with the help of a pen attached to a stick paul wrote his own biography entirely with his mouth so why write a book to inspire thousands of people just like you no matter where you're from or what your plasty is are the challenges that you could be faced with you can truly do anything you just got to set your mind to it but work hard paul what's your dream to not let polio defeat me but to defeat polio therefore i wanted to accomplish the things i was told i couldn't accomplish [Music] that to achieve the dreams i dreamed paul may have an iron lung but he has a golden soul and a diamond heart my story is an example of why your past or even disability does not have to define your future you

Channel: Mitch Summers

Views: 16,810,185

Rating: 4.9657369 out of 5

Keywords: paul alexander, polio virus, mitch summers, iron lung, the man in the iron lung

Id: xowUq7JgFeQ

Length: 5min 21sec (321 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/3614398214]

I have to admit, it mightn't seem that he's living the most interesting life, but you have to give him credit where it's due - the amount of strength and stubbornness he has to fight against it is honestly astounding. And admirable. Many, many people wouldn't choose to continue on in a life where they can only do the smallest things with assistance, and only have their mouth as an accessible, impromptu appendage just to independently do a single hobby. But this dude? He's rocking it. And I've some major respect for him because of it.

[u/jddbeyondthesky]

This is what can happen when we foster human potential, and why I want to see society actually invest in itself

[u/commonmetaphor]

He wrote a book called, "Three Minutes for a Dog". I recently purchased it on Amazon for Kindle. It's short and very interesting. I recommend checking it out!

[u/Danel-Rahmani]

Polio is an absolutely horrible disease to have, a family friend my parents have who lives in Kabul got polio whe he was young and is still living with it, it's sad to see that polio is still spreading there

[u/Hazardous_Wastrel]

I had no idea iron lungs were still being used.

[u/Mr_Diesel13]

I remember watching a documentary he was a part of. I believe they said they were to the point that it was getting extremely hard to find parts for the iron lung, and it was only a matter of time before it failed completely. I’m not 100% sure on that though. It’s been a while.

[u/89moonlight]

Show this to antivaxxers

[u/piperbud]

My dad got polio before he was 1. He was in an iron lung for 2 years. He would have been in one in 1952.

[u/Kevinement]

I do wonder how he worked as an attorney.

That iron lung seems pretty loud and I would think clients are put off by the noise and distracted by the disability.