The year 1952 is marked as a dreadful year in the U.S as it was terrified by the infamous life-threatening disease Polio (poliomyelitis) caused by the poliovirus. Paul Alexander( aged 6 yrs old) was playing in the backyard in a normal rainy day in the month of July when he got suddenly ill and ran inside his home to get his mum. She turned to him and looked at him thoroughly and said “Oh my God!!!Not my son”. Within a week he lost his ability to walk, breathe and swallow. When he was presented to the E.R, the doctor pronounced him dead but that is when his life changed. Another doctor rushed to the E.R and picked him up and took him to the O.R. He performed a tracheotomy (it’s a procedure in which a tube is surgically inserted through an incision in the lower part of the neck for mechanical respiration) and put him in the Iron Lung. An iron lung is a type of negative pressure ventilator which encloses most of a person’s body and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space to stimulate breathing.
He fought hard to beat the virus and never gave up due to which he came home after 18 months but nothing remained the same. He was paralyzed from the neck down and he couldn’t breathe without the iron lung. Paul did nearly all the normal things that a kid of his age does such as reading, watching TV, painting, writing. He even graduated with honours from high school but couldn’t make his way to the college as they rejected him saying he was way too crippled. After constantly nagging them for 2 years they finally agreed to admit him in the college but with two conditions. One was to get polio vaccine and the other was that a fraternity would be responsible for him. His dream was to become a lawyer and after working very hard he became one more accurate a very good one. To inspire people he also wrote his biography on his own. He is now 74 and is still fighting the virus, moreover he’s in high danger of contracting the Corona virus. Paul Alexander AKA The Man In The Iron Lung’s story inspires everyone that a disability cannot stop you from doing anything, it doesn’t get to decide your future nor you should be held back by it. Keep moving and never give up.
DuckDesk 