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A man who lived inside an ‘iron lung’ for seven decades after contracting polio as a child has died.
Paul Alexander was paralysed from the neck down after contracting the virus in 1952. He died on Monday after being taken to hospital with Covid.
When he was six years old, Mr Alexander was rushed to hospital after falling ill with a fever and aching limbs.
His condition deteriorated and a doctor performed a tracheotomy on him to remove the congestion from his lungs following his polio infection.
He woke up inside a metal cylinder, known as an ‘iron lung’ which he lived in for most of the rest of his life, covering his entire body except his head.
The iron lung acted as a diaphragm to help Mr Alexander breathe after the polio infection destroyed his internal functions.
The device worked by air being sucked out of the cylinder by a set of leather bellows powered by a motor, and the negative pressure forced his lungs to expand.
When the air was pumped back in, the change in pressure deflated his lungs, keeping him alive.
At first, he was unable to move or talk inside the metal casing, and would often go unwashed because he was unable to communicate with the nurses looking after him.
He was eventually moved from the hospital to his home in Dallas, Texas, and his father placed a clear plastic stick, flat and about a foot long with a pen attached, which he used to write and push buttons on devices such as mobile phones.
Later, he learned to breathe by himself and was able to spend short periods of time outside the iron lung and got into university, obtaining a law degree and even practising law.
He also published his memoir in April 2020.
He was one of many children placed inside iron lungs during an outbreak of polio in the US during the 1950s.
Iron lungs were also used in the UK. The last person to use an iron lung in the UK died in December 2017, aged 75.
“I knew if I was going to do anything with my life, it was going to have to be a mental thing,” he told The Guardian in 2020.
Tributes flooded in for Mr Alexander following his death.
“Paul, you will be missed but always remembered,” said Christopher Ulmer, who set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for Mr Alexander’s care costs.
“Thanks for sharing your story with us.”
His brother Philip previously thanked all those who had donated to the fundraiser.
“I am so grateful to everybody who donated to my brother’s fundraiser,” he said.
“It allowed him to live his last few years stress-free. It will also pay for his funeral during this difficult time.
“It is absolutely incredible to read all the comments and know that so many people were inspired by Paul.”
Polio is a serious infection that is now very rare in both the US and UK because of a vaccination programme.
It is now only found in a few countries and the chance of getting it is very low.
Health officials declared a national incident after the polio virus was identified in sewage samples taken from London between February and May 2022, but no associated cases appeared to have been identified.
There have been no confirmed cases of paralysis due to polio caught in the UK since 1984.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, frequent epidemics saw polio become one of the most feared diseases in the world.
A major outbreak in New York City in 1916 killed more than 2,000 people, and the worst recorded US outbreak in 1952 killed over 3,000.
FAQs
He was 78 years old. Paul Alexander, the man who lived inside an iron lung for over 70 years after contracting polio, died Monday after being hospitalized for Covid last month, his friends and family said. He was 78. Alexander's death was announced on a GoFundMe set up to help him with finances.
Is Paul Alexander still alive in 2024? ›
Alexander died in Dallas on March 11, 2024, at age 78. Although he had been hospitalized for COVID-19 in February, the actual cause of death was unclear. He was one of the last two people still using the technology, alongside Martha Lillard, who first entered an iron lung in 1953.
Who died after living in the iron lung for 70 years? ›
Paul Alexander, Polio Survivor Who Lived in Iron Lung for 72 Years, Dies age 78 - The New York Times. U.S.
Is the last man in the iron lung still alive? ›
Paul Alexander was the last man living in an iron lung.
The last man to live in an iron lung died in Dallas on Monday.
How long does someone stay in an iron lung? ›
Some patients spent just a short time in the iron lung, perhaps weeks or months until they were able to regain chest strength and breath independently again. But for patients whose chest muscles were permanently paralysed, the iron lung remained the key to survival.
Do iron lungs still exist? ›
As polio case numbers have dropped, iron lungs have disappeared from use, with only a handful of people who were already in the devices, like Alexander, still using them. Nowadays, patients who need help to breathe are instead given modern ventilators, which don't require a person to be immobilized in a tube.
Why didn't Paul Alexander leave the iron lung? ›
After three years, Paul could leave his lung for a few hours at a time. His frog-breathing had become muscle memory – like riding a bicycle, he . Paul Alexander would have been vent dependent due to his paralyzed diaphragm.
What disease is the iron lung? ›
A medical miracle made of metal helped polio sufferers to breathe in the 1900s. The tank respirator, or iron lung, reads like a medical curiosity in modern times thanks to vaccines for the polio virus created by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin in the 1950s and 1960s.
Can you get out of an iron lung? ›
Most people used the iron lung for a few weeks or months depending on the intensity of the polio attack. However, those with chest muscles . No it does not leave your body. Fiberglass is very similar to asbestos.
What does it look like inside an iron lung? ›
The iron lung is typically a large horizontal cylinder in which a person is laid, with their head protruding from a hole in the end of the cylinder, so that their full head (down to their voice box) is outside the cylinder, exposed to ambient air, and the rest of their body sealed inside the cylinder, where air ...
Martha Ann Lillard (born June 8, 1948) is an American polio survivor who is still living in an iron lung. She became the only person after Paul Alexander's death still living in the iron lung. She contracted polio in 1953 when she was five years old. Shawnee, Oklahoma, U.S.
What is the difference between an iron lung and a ventilator? ›
Unlike most of today's ventilators, the iron lung is a negative pressure ventilator. In contrast, most modern ventilators, the ones that you see people hooked up to with a tube going down to their lungs, are positive pressure ventilators. What's the difference? A positive pressure ventilator pushes air into your lungs.
How do people use the bathroom in an iron lung? ›
And for going to the bathroom, it might occur a couple of different times, but my father had a bedpan, that was placed under him. He was lying down in the iron lung. Or he also had the same thing to pee into and that just go, you know, right between his legs.
Were iron lungs painful? ›
What was it like for the patient? Going into an iron lung was a bewildering process for patients, many of whom were delirious and in extreme pain. Life in an iron lung was difficult for both patient and carers.
What happens to your body in an iron lung? ›
Rhythmic variations in air pressure, created by a bellows that can be operated electrically or manually, mimick the way the diaphragm and muscles of the chest normally do to move air into and out of the lungs. Essentially, the machine "breathes for" the patient.
Are there any polio survivors left? ›
Over 12 million people, worldwide have been affected by polio as indicated by the CDC. There is no central system for reporting post-polio syndrome, but it is estimated that 300,000 individuals are survivors of polio in the United States and have mild to severe symptoms.
Why is Paul Alexander still in an iron lung? ›
Paul had survived a serious bout of polio, but had been left quadriplegic. After an emergency tracheostomy operation, he was unable to breathe without the iron lung machine that now encased his small body.
Can people get out of an iron lung? ›
Most people used the iron lung for a few weeks or months depending on the intensity of the polio attack. However, those with chest muscles . No it does not leave your body. Fiberglass is very similar to asbestos.
Who was the man in the iron lung that died at 78? ›
Paul Alexander, 78-year-old Dallas man who lived in an iron lung for most of his life, dies. DALLAS – Paul Alexander, a North Texas man who lived in an iron lung for most of his life, has died. According to his obituary, he died on March 11. He was 78.
