Paul had an incredible life inside a iron lung. He attended Southern Methodist University on a scholarship and graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin Law School.
He was originally able to leave the iron lung for short periods and use a wheelchair. He attended school and worked as an attorney. That apparently changed as he grew older.
I can’t imagine facing his challenges and not being overwhelmed. I admire Paul’s tenacity and courage.
Paul died March 11, 2024. He had been in the hospital a few weeks earlier with Covid.
Anyone else still living in an iron lung? According to this article from Ohio State University there were 3 people still living in iron lungs in 2017. The count is now down to 2 or fewer. One person, Martha Lillard was still reported alive and living in an iron lung in 2021.
In the 60s there were many people suffering from polio because the vaccines were very new. Many people suffered lifelong disabilities but did not suffer from the level of paralysis requiring an iron lung. The iron lung was still well known at the time and was used in the plot of fictional works.
When I was a kid, I’d see iron lungs on TV and was deathly afraid of being put in one. No one thought to tell me that the polio vaccine I took made that not a risk.
Three of my high school classmates had polio, but their disabilities mostly manifested in a limp. However, one student did have the braces and crutches. It is odd to me that they acquired illness since all were born after 1955. But I suppose, in our rural county, they just hadn’t gotten around to distributing the vaccine to outlying areas. I knew their families and they were not anti-vaxxers by any means. Medicine produced miracles to them, since many of them grew up in an era without antibiotics, some vaccinations, and dirty water, etc., so they were quite enthusiastic and trusting about any medical discovery that would decrease suffering. Rather hard to take these days, when I hear of those who don’t vaccinate their kids. They just do not have the personal of experience of burying a small sibling bc they had measles, or losing a child to diptheria (something that happened to my grandmother).
My first cousin had polio. He had physical therapy for over a year. Thankfully he walks ok. It did earn him a medical deferment from the draft. He couldn’t have marched long distances without injury.
My step dad who is 90 had polio and was bed ridden for a couple of months but had no lasting effects. His best friend, who passed five or six years ago, had deformed legs but got along pretty well with a cane.
What was it about some polio victims that required an iron lung that no other disease today does? Would someone in the same situation today get a different therapy (if they didn’t have a vaccine)?
I know someone in her 50s who has polio. She was born overseas and never vaccinated. She acquired polio here in the US. One problem now is that vaccines use live viruses that can infect unvaccinated people. This was happening occasionally as recently as 20 years ago for older people who lived here all their lives but were never vaccinated.
I hope one of the knowledgeable medical Dopers can answer this. I’ve wondered that, too. Why does the person have to be lying down? Couldn’t someone invent an effective external assisted breathing device (if that’s what an iron lung is) where the person could at least be vertical or almost vertical?
I was born in 1948 and received the polio vaccine early in life. I remember being terrified of the idea of being in an iron lung.
Polio can cause an infection of the brain called encephalitis. As per wiki:
“…a viral infection of the brain, causing inflammation within the grey matter of the brain stem.[1] The virus has an affinity for neuronal cell bodies and has been found to affect mostly the midbrain, pons, medulla and cerebellum of most infected patients. The infection can reach up through the thalamus and hypothalamus and possibly reach the cerebral hemispheres.[2] The infection is caused by the poliomyelitis virus which is a single-stranded, positive sense RNA virus surrounded by a non-enveloped capsid. Humans are the only known natural hosts of this virus. The disease has been eliminated from the U.S. since the mid-twentieth century, but is still found in certain areas of the world…”
The difficulty breathing is due to poor function of the areas of the brain which control breathing (such as the medulla). These are also above C3-C5, the part of the central nervous system controlling the diaphragm. It may be difficult to stand, if most of the motor nerves on the body are also affected; or if cerebellar involvement causes loss of balance. Level of consciousness may also be reduced, making a more natural posture more difficult and less of a priority. Of course people with more control are often ventilated in positions which are less recumbent. Doubtful they could do that in 1848 though.
Like many viruses where a vaccine exists, contemporary naysayers (never having seen severely affected individuals) generally do not have much deep understanding of risks versus benefits.
Yeah, I was born in late 1951, and my mom rushed us kids to get the vaccines as soon as they were available. I can remember waiting in line to get both the Salk and Sabin vaccines.
Note, my explanation may not apply to Mr. Alexander, whose brain was less affected. I did not realize what a remarkable man he was (see free link below), having glossed over the first post.
Muscular power is measured on a scale including the ability to resist gravity. The implication is the diaphragm and chest muscles were too weak to do this without eventually tiring. Being horizontal requires less force to expand than being vertical.
Excerpt
While innovations in science and technology led to portable ventilators for people with respiratory problems, Mr. Alexander’s chest muscles were too damaged to use any other machine…
I remember our folks taking us to get our polio sugar cube and the smallpox scar. I knew what the thump, creak, thump, creak of braces and crutches sounded like by the time I was in first grade.
How is it that we are so unable to remember the near past? Folks like Mr. Alexander and many others suffered from a serious disease that is preventable now, but polio is coming back. And measles and whooping cough and…
Polio still has not knowingly returned to the US. This site gives a map of when it was eradicated in various countries.
Measles is a concern; whooping cough (pertussis) has always been a factor, largely since the vaccination is not permanent.
Today, polio is endemic in only two of the world’s countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even in these locations, aggressive vaccination efforts have dropped the number of cases to a handful a year.