Survivor of polio Paul Alexander,78, passes away

Paul Alexander, who was diagnosed with polio at the age of six in 1952 and required an iron lung for over 70 years, passed away at the age of 78.

“The man in the iron lung” is how the general public refers to Alexander.

His team used a fundraising for his Dallas, Texas, medical care on Monday to confirm his passing, according to a Daily Mail article that was released on Wednesday. But no more information about his passing was given.

On Monday, Mr. Alexander passed away, per a GoFundMe page created to assist with the cost of his care.

Christopher Ulmer, the person in charge of fundraising, wrote: “Paul, you will be missed but always remembered. Thanks for sharing your story with us.”

In 1952, Paul Alexander, a resident of Dallas, Texas, USA, contracted the poliovirus at the age of six, which resulted in paralysis from the neck down.

Paul Alexander was sent to the hospital right away when he started exhibiting symptoms, and he awoke there restrained inside a mechanical lung. He spent the remainder of his life within what became known as “the man with the iron lung” after that.

When a doctor performed a tracheotomy to remove congestion from Mr. Alexander’s lungs after his polio illness, the iron lung functioned as a stand-in for his diaphragm and helped him breathe.

Mr. Alexander was unable to move or talk inside the metal enclosure, which made it difficult for him to communicate with the nurses who were taking care of him. Because he couldn’t express his demands, he would frequently go unwashed.

The 1950s American polio outbreak included Mr. Alexander and many other youngsters who were given iron lung implants.

Mr. Alexander was able to enroll in college and graduate with a law degree in spite of his illness. Still, he was unable to escape the iron lung. He also released his autobiography in April 2020.

Thanks to extensive immunization campaigns, polio, a dangerous infection, has become incredibly rare in both the US and the UK. It is now limited to a small number of nations, and there is very little chance of catching it.

When the poliovirus was discovered in sewage samples taken from London between February and May of 2022, health officials announced a nationwide crisis. Nevertheless, no concomitant polio cases were found.

Since 1984, there have been no verified occurrences of polio-related paralysis in the United Kingdom.

Many epidemics during the late 19th and early 20th century made polio one of the world’s most feared diseases.

More than 2,000 people died in a major outbreak that struck New York City in 1916, and over 3,000 people perished in the deadliest outbreak in US history, which happened in 1952.