Paul Alexander worked as a lawyer and lived for decades in a metal cylinder which breathed for him.

Paul Alexander contracted polio in 1952 when he was six, leaving him paralysed from the neck down.

In 1952, when he became ill, doctors in his hometown of Dallas operated on him, saving his life. But polio meant his body was no longer able to breathe on his own.

The answer was to place him in a so-called iron lung - a metal cylinder enclosing his body up to his neck.

The lung, which he called his “old iron horse”, allowed him to breathe. Bellows sucked air out of the cylinder, forcing his lungs to expand and take in air. When the air was let back in, the same process in reverse made his lungs deflate.

He would go on to earn a law degree - and practise law - as well as publish a memoir.

  • @ReiRose
    65•7 months ago

    Some info that I found important that isn’t in this article but is in the Wiki:

    He spent 18 months in hospital, before going home. He was paralyzed from the neck down. His parents rented a portable generator and a truck to bring him and his iron lung home. Beginning in 1954, with help from the March of Dimes and a physical therapist named Mrs. Sullivan, Alexander taught himself glossopharyngeal breathing which allowed him to leave the iron lung for gradually increasing periods of time.

    Alexander died from a COVID-19 infection on March 11, 2024, at the age of 78. He was one of the last two people still using the technology, alongside Martha Lillard, who first entered an iron lung in 1953.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Alexander_(polio_survivor)

    (I haven’t brought over the sources, they can be found on the Wiki link)

      • @[email protected]
        7•7 months ago

        Iirc it would be possible for them to use modern ventilators, but there are physiological strains from using a ventilator long term. They probably also had become accustomed to living in an iron lung.

          • @[email protected]OP
            10•7 months ago

            https://vaxopedia.org/2018/07/25/did-modern-ventilators-replace-the-iron-lung-for-folks-with-polio/

            Tl:dr version … Yes, because we don’t build iron lungs anymore. “Instead, they would likely use mouth intermittent positive pressure ventilation.”

            Ventilators are positive pressure, pushing air into the lungs which is good for those with breathing issues.

            Irons lungs are negative pressure because polio patients don’t have a problem with their lungs … polio has invaded their brain and spinal cord and killed control over their chest muscles and diaphram. Negative pressure forces their chest to rise and fall, making them “breathe”.

            The article is worth reading.