Paul Alexander passed away at the age of 78 (Picture: GoFundMe)
He spent his life in an iron lung, but that didn’t stop Paul Alexander from achieving some truly incredible things.
When Paul contracted polio when he was just six years old, doctors didn’t think he would live to see his teenage years.
But he defied all expectations. Paul became a lawyer, wrote a memoir, and broke a world record, all while dealing with the debilitating impacts of polio that left him dependent on an iron lung.
He passed away on Tuesday at the age of 78, leaving behind an inspirational legacy.
This is the true story of how he survived polio and lived in an iron lung against all the odds.
America’s worst polio outbreak
In the summer of 1952, six-year-old Paul was playing outside of his home in Dallas, Texas, when he suddenly felt strange. His neck hurt and his head was pounding.
When he went inside to find his mum, she immediately knew what was wrong.
Paul spent 70 years living in an iron lung
One of the worst polio outbreaks the country had ever seen was sweeping the US.
Cinemas, swimming pools and bowling alleys closed their doors as tens of thousands of people, mostly children, were struck by the infection.
‘Polio was the horror of the day. It was like the Black Plague,’ Paul told Star Tribune in 2018.
Paul’s mum took him to their doctor, who confirmed her suspicions – he had polio.
The doctor advised that he rest at home, as the hospital was already overflowing with sick children.
But Paul quickly deteriorated and soon he was struggling to breathe. He was rushed to Parkland Hospital and he began to lose consciousness.
When he woke up, he was in an iron lung.
What is an iron lung and how does it work?
An iron lung is a huge, airtight metal box that helps polio patients to breathe.
There are bellows at one end of the box.
The bellows suck air out, which forces the patient’s lungs to expand as the air pressure decreases.
Then, air is blown back into the box, which makes the patient’s lungs push the air out.
The device was invented in 1928 by Phillip Drinker and Louis Shaw, and it soon became a vital part of polio treatment.
‘I figured I’d gone to Hell,’ he told Star Tribune in 2018.
Polio attacks motor neurons in the spinal cord, that can leave the patient paralysed. Paul could only move his neck, head and mouth.
The iron lung saved Paul’s life (Picture: Getty Images)
The next 18 months were bleak. He was unable to leave the hospital, and a tracheotomy procedure, a type of surgery where a hole is made in the throat, left him unable to talk for months.
He tried to make friends with the other children in the ward by communicating with his eyes.
‘Every time I’d make a friend, they’d die,’ he said.
Living in an iron lung
Paul was determined to not be defined by his condition.
He recovered from the infection, but the illness had left a lasting impact.
Paul was able to survive because he learned a special breathing technique known as ‘frog breathing’, where he would gulp air into his throat.
With the help of this technique, he was able to leave to iron lung for short amounts of time.
Paul was able to leave the iron lung for short periods
Even so, it was difficult for Paul to lead a normal life. He was determined to get a good education, but he wasn’t always able to write, so he learned to memorise information rather than take notes.
He was homeschooled, and in 1967, at the age of 21, he graduated from high school. He was the first student to do so without ever physically attending a class.
He went on to receive a scholarship to the Southern Methodist University. He transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a degree in 1978.
After a stint teaching legal terminology to court stenographers, he got a law degree and was admitted to the bar in the 1980s.
He became a family lawyer who helped people filing for bankruptcy.
He earned a name for himself by always turning up to the courtrooms in a three-piece suit.
Overcoming challenges
Life in an iron lung wasn’t always easy.
In 2015, Paul encountered one of his biggest challenges yet. His iron lung, which he depended on, was in desperate need of repair.
But it was impossible to get a new one, as the machine has not been manufactured since the late 1960s, and there were no new parts available to buy.
Paul was an inspiration to thousands of people and sadly died this week (Picture: Youtube)
His friend Nick put out a YouTube video asking for help.
Not many people understood how the iron lung worked and didn’t know how to fix it.
But one man, Brady Richards, responded to the callout.
‘It’s a miracle that I found him,’ Paul said in 2017.
‘Once you live in an iron lung forever, it seems like, it becomes such a part of your mentality,’ Paul told Gizmodo.
‘If there’s a slight bit of a vibration that occurs as the result of the mechanics—worn out the fan belt or it needs grease or anything like that—it tends to change the breath slightly. Yep, the iron lung’s a part of me, I’m afraid,’ he said.
It was not the last time Paul fell on hard times.
In 2020, a friend of Paul set up a GoFundMe page to help Paul afford housing and healthcare.
The GoFundMe organiser said that Paul ‘was taken advantage of by people who were supposed to care for his best interests.
‘This theft, combined with the high cost of healthcare, has left Paul with little money to survive.’
The page has raised more than $140,000 to date.
A record breaker
Paul became a world record holder in 2022 after spending the longest amount of time living in an iron lung.
To add to his achievements, he also wrote a memoir called Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung.
It took him more than eight years to write. He used a plastic stick attached to a pen held in his mouth to type the story on the keyboard, and he also dictated parts of it to a friend.
He even posted on TikTok and Instagram, where he shared his story.
Paul said he owed everything to his ‘extraordinary’ late parents.
‘They just loved me,’ he said. ‘They said, ‘You can do anything.’ And I believed it.’
How is polio treated today?
There is still no cure for polio, but a widely available vaccine has helped to turn the tide against the disease around the world.
The vaccine became available in the US in 1955 and in the UK in 1956.
The vaccine is given to children in the UK at eight, 12 and 16 weeks old. There are two booster given at ages three and 14.
A polio vaccine has helped to wipe out the disease (Picture: Getty Images)
You can get a polio vaccination at any point on the NHS.
The risk of getting polio in the UK is extremely low, as the World Health Organisation declared Europe polio-free in 2002.
Today, iron lungs are rarely used to treat polio. Instead, patients use mechanical ventilators which offer them much more freedom.
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