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Paul Richard Alexander was an American paralytic polio survivor, lawyer and writer. The last man to live in an iron lung, he contracted polio in 1952 at the ...
- 6 min
- 3.1M
- Peekaboo Kidz
Paul Alexander was six years old when he woke, terrified, to find himself inside a large metal tube, with only his head sticking out. He couldn't move to feel what was trapping him, and when...
Harriet Zaidman, author of "Second Chances" (Red Deer Press 2021), talks to Paul Alexander about how hope was essential for polio victims to overcome the eff...
To the world, Dallas native Paul Alexander was known as "the man in the iron lung" or "polio Paul," but to his younger brother, Philip, Paul was a role model.
- 3 min
- 76.9K
- CBS TEXAS
- Paul Alexander Contracts Polio and Starts His New Life in An Iron Lung
- The Man in The Iron Lung Pursues His Education
- Paul Alexander’s Inspiring Life in His Final Years
- The Death of Paul Alexander
Young Paul Alexander’s life changed on a sweltering July day in Texas in 1952. Pools were closed, as were movie theaters and almost all other public gathering spots. The polio epidemicraged as people sheltered in place, terrified of the new sickness with no cure. Alexander was playing outside with his brother when he suddenly felt ill and went into...
Alexander made friends once he was out of the hospital and able to leave the iron lung for longer periods, and on some afternoons, they pushed him around the neighborhood in his wheelchair. However, during the day, those friends were all busy at the one place where he desperately wanted to be: school. His mother had already taught him the basics of...
By the time he reached his 70s, Paul Alexander began to rely almost exclusively on his iron lung to breathe. “It’s exhausting,” he told The Dallas Morning Newsof his frog breathing technique in 2018. “People think I’m chewing gum. I’ve developed it into an art.” Still, Alexander outlived both his parents and his brother. He even outlived his origin...
Paul Alexander’s life was changed by one disease. And his death was brought about by another. In 2024, he contracted COVID-19 at the age of 78. At the end of February 2024, Alexander tested positive for the coronavirus. In a TikTok video, his social media manager explained that he had been “rushed to the emergency” room and the disease was “really,...
Nov 22, 2017 · Polio survivor Paul Alexander has been using an iron lung for 65 years. He went to law school in it. And now he's writing a memoir about it.
Mar 13, 2024 · Paul Alexander, known as Polio Paul, spent 70 years living in an iron lung after contracting polio before his death aged 78.
