‘Polio Paul,’ who spent most of the past 70 years in an iron lung, dies at 78 | CNN (2024)

FAQs

‘Polio Paul,’ who spent most of the past 70 years in an iron lung, dies at 78 | CNN? ›

Paul Alexander, who spent the vast majority of the past 70 years in an iron lung

After an emergency tracheostomy operation, he was unable to breathe without the iron lung machine that now encased his small body. When he died recently at the age of 78, Paul had spent more than seven decades using his iron lung, longer than anyone else in history.

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.

Most patients only used the iron lung for a few weeks or months depending on the severity of the polio attack, but those left with their chest muscles permanently paralyzed by the disease faced a lifetime of confinement. In 1959, there were 1,200 people using iron lungs in the U.S., but by 2017, there were only three.

On March 11, 2024, Paul Alexander of Dallas, Texas, United States, died at the age of 78. He had been confined to an iron lung for 72 years from the age of six, longer than anyone, and was the last man living in an iron lung. With his death, Martha Lillard is the only person in the U.S. known to use an iron lung.

Alexander has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the person who has spent the longest amount of time living in an iron lung. Alexander started a TikTok account in January 2024, on which he posted videos discussing his life. He had more than 330,000 followers at the time of his death.

Paul Alexander, a 78-year-old man from Texas, USA, who spent most of his life in an iron lung, died on 11 March. Alexander contracted polio in 1952, when he was just 6 years old. The disease paralyzed him from the neck down so he couldn't breathe on his own.

Parade reported that Alexander was the last man living in an iron lung in the United States and is believed to have lived in one the longest, a record noted by Guinness World Records in 2023. A woman, Martha Lillard, is the last person still using one, the article said.

In contrast to the iron lung, which relied on negative pressure ventilation that suctioned air into a patient's lungs, positive pressure ventilation would push air into the lungs by hand, without the aid of machine.

The iron lung, or tank respirator, is a time-cycled negative pressure ventilator^ consisting of an airtight cylinder that encloses the patient up to his neck, leaving the head exposed to atmospheric pressure. Subatmospheric pressure (negative pressure) is applied to the body rhythmically in phase with inspiration.

Can you ever leave an iron lung? ›

Independent breathing also allowed him to leave the iron lung. At first, he could stay away for just a few minutes. As he became better at his siphon-style breathing, he was able to spend hours outside the chamber, which he had dubbed his “old iron horse.”

The man in the iron lung, living a large life

He survived thanks to a last-minute tracheotomy; from there, he set out to push beyond the limits of his condition. Holding a rod in his mouth, he was able to turn pages in books and create art.

Then directly afterwards then we had the bathing, and the iron lung would pull out. The attendants would have a tub that they would have sometimes in their hand but then would bring a stool over put the tub there, and they would go lower body first, always the chest, the arms, washcloth, not sponge.

The man with the iron lung, Paul Alexander, was forbidden from marrying. the love of his life by her mother, who ripped their romance apart. Polio Paul met Claire when he was at university. studying to be a lawyer.

Polio is caused by 1 of 3 types of the poliovirus. It often spreads due to contact with infected feces. This often happens from poor handwashing. It can also happen from eating or drinking contaminated food or water.

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.

The oxygen levels on the Iron Lung are scripted, rather than being time based, meaning it is technically impossible for the player to actually suffocate in the Iron Lung.

At least one other American was known to be relying on an iron lung in recent years: Martha Lillard, who contracted polio one year after Alexander. Both of them were able to learn to breathe outside of the massive respirator for hours at a time, using a technique that required them to intentionally swallow air.