Iron lung man Paul Alexander dies aged 78 after spending 70 years living in a tank
Paul Alexander - the man who lived in an iron lung for seven decades - has died at the age of 78
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A man who spent seven decades living in an iron lung has died at the age of 78.
Paul Alexander, widely known as Polio Paul, was left paralysed after contracting polio in 1952 when he was six years old.
Paul was rushed to hospital after coming down with a fever and headache after playing outside that summer.
Over the next few days, his health went from bad to worse as the deadly viral disease took hold.
Paul was unable to breathe independently and had a team of rotating carers to clean and look after him
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Doctors operated on him to clear the mucus that had filled his lungs because his body was unable to clear it.
The operation saved his life but he would never be able to breathe independently again. He would spend more than 70 decades living inside an iron lung.
An update on his GoFundMe reads: "Paul Alexander, 'The Man in the Iron Lung', passed away yesterday.
"After surviving polio as a child, he lived over 70 years inside of an iron lung.
"In this time Paul went to college, became a lawyer, and a published author.
"His story traveled wide and far, positively influencing people around the world.
"Paul was an incredible role model that will continue to be remembered. He had a team of rotating carers to clean and look after him, and used his mouth to manipulate a pen when writing or using a phone.
"Paul, you will be missed but always remembered."
A vaccine was invented in 1955, effectively eradicating polio. Unfortunately, this was too late for Paul, who was left unable to move from the neck down.
He decided to continue using the iron lung despite modern ventilators existing since the 1960s because it was what he was used to.
Despite living with a debilitating disease, Paul achieved more than most in his lifetime.
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Paul developed a technique called frog breathing, which allowed him to leave his lung for short periods of time
Paul Alexander
At 21, he became the first person to graduate from a high school in Dallas without ever attending class in person.
He was accepted into Southern Methodist University in Dallas, after endless back and forth with university administration and then got into law school at the University of Texas, Austin.
He landed his dream job as a trial lawyer, representing clients in court in a three-piece suit and a modified wheelchair that held his paralysed body upright.
He also staged a sit-in for disability rights and penned his own memoir, titled 'Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung'.
Paul developed a technique called frog breathing, which allows people to gulp air down with their throat instead of using their lungs. This enabled him to get out of the mechanical device for short periods of time.
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem. Cases of polio in the UK fell dramatically when routine vaccination was introduced in the mid-1950s.
There hasn’t been a case of polio caught in the UK since the mid-90s. But the infection is still found in some parts of the world, and there remains a very small risk it could be brought back to the UK.