Connect with us

News

Paul Alexander, a polio Survivor who lived inside an Iron Lung for 72 Years, has Died

Avatar of Arsi Mughal

Published

on

Paul Alexander, a polio Survivor who lived inside an Iron Lung for 72 Years, has Died

(CTN News) – Paul Alexander was paralysed by polio at the age of six and spent much of his life confined to a yellow iron lung to keep him alive. He was not expected to live following that diagnosis, and even when he did, his life was mostly limited by a machine in which he could not move.

Despite the toll of living in an iron lung with polio, Mr. Alexander attended college, earned a law degree, and practiced law for over 30 years. As a youngster, he trained himself to breathe for minutes, then hours, but he had to use the equipment every day of his life.

His brother, Philip Alexander, posted a statement on social media announcing his death on Monday at the age of 78.

He was one of the last people in the United States to live inside an iron lung, which operates by adjusting the air pressure in the chamber to drive air into and out of the lungs. And in the closing weeks of his life, he gained a following on TikTok by revealing what it was like to live so long with the assistance of an obsolete machine.

Legacy and Remembrance: Honoring Paul Alexander

No official cause of death was provided. Paul Alexander was briefly hospitalized with Covid-19 in February, according to his TikTok account. Mr. Alexander struggled to eat and stay hydrated after returning home from the infection, which assaults the lungs and can be especially deadly for the elderly and those with breathing problems.

Mr. Alexander developed polio in 1952, according to his book “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung.” He was rapidly paralysed, and physicians at Parkland Hospital in Dallas placed him in an iron lung so he could breathe.

“One day I opened my eyes from a deep sleep and looked around for something, anything, familiar,” Mr. Alexander wrote in his book, which he penned while holding a pen or pencil in his mouth. “Everywhere I glanced seemed odd. Little did I know that with each new day, my life was inexorably placed on a road that would become increasingly weird and difficult.”

132904832 69219225 1667960617285420 r.jpg

In 2018, The Dallas Morning News profiled Mr. Alexander, who was unable to use portable ventilators due to damage to his chest muscles.

When he was within the machine, Mr. Alexander required assistance from others for basic functions such as eating and drinking. Mr. Alexander claimed in his autobiography that his career, Kathy Gaines, provided him with assistance for the majority of his life.

In January, Mr. Alexander started a TikTok account and shared videos about his life with others. Some touched on bigger aspects of his life, such as how he practiced law from the iron lung.

In other videos, he answered questions from his 330,000+ followers on ordinary but exciting elements of his daily existence, such as how he relieves himself. (A career had to release the iron lung and use a urinal or bed pan.)

In one film, Mr. Alexander discussed the emotional and mental problems of living within an iron lung.

“It’s lonely,” he said, with the machine buzzing in the background. “Sometimes it’s desperate because I can’t touch someone, my hands don’t move, and no one touches me except in rare occasions, which I cherish.”

Mr. Alexander stated in the video that he has received emails and letters from people suffering from anxiety and depression throughout the years and has offered guidance.

“Life is such an extraordinary thing,” he stated. “Please hold on. “It will get better.”

Gus Nicholas Alexander and Doris Marie Emmett gave birth to Paul Richard Alexander on January 30, 1946, in Dallas. After playing outside on a July day in 1952, he returned home with a 102-degree fever, headache, and stiff neck, according to his mother in the foreword to his book.

“I had every reason to be terror-stricken, and I was,” she wrote in the letter. “Polio, the dreaded sickness of every parent, was creeping across our city like a large black monster, paralyzing and killing wherever he went. Here was Paul, exhibiting every symptom.

Paul Alexander spent several months in the hospital, coming close to death on multiple occasions.

“Finally, one day the doctor called us in and told us Paul could not live much longer and if we wanted him at home with us when he died, we could take him,” his mother said in a letter.

His voyage home with the iron lung made hospital workers “tense,” and it included a truck with a generator in the bed to keep the contraption running, his mother wrote.

Mr. Alexander told The Dallas Morning News that when he was eight years old, he learned to breathe on his own for up to three minutes by gulping air “like a fish” and ingesting it into his lungs.

Mr. Alexander told the newspaper that he was inspired to learn to breathe after a carer offered him a puppy if he tried to learn to breathe on his own. He got a puppy, which eventually inspired the title of his book, “Three Minutes for a Dog.”

220726113831 paul

Mr. Alexander was one of the first Dallas Independent School District students to be home-schooled, and he graduated second in his class from W.W. Samuell High in 1967, according to The Dallas Morning News.

“The only reason I didn’t get first,” he told the newspaper, “is because I couldn’t do the biology lab.”

Mr. Alexander attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin to study economics and finance, as reported by the “Alcalde,” the university’s alumni magazine.

Mr. Alexander was permitted to leave the iron lung for hours at a time after learning to breathe on his own, and students from his dorm would transport him to class in a wheelchair, according to the Alcalde. He later attended law school at the University of Texas, where he graduated in 1984.

Mr. Alexander is survived by his brother, nephew Benjamin Alexander, niece Jennifer Dodson, and sister-in-law Rafaela Alexander, according to Dignity Memorial. His funeral is scheduled for March 20 at Grove Hill Funeral Home & Memorial Park in Dallas.

In a TikTok video posted on Jan. 31, Mr. Alexander expressed surprise and emotion over the reception to his films before his death.

“It makes me feel like there’s somebody that really cares about me,” he told me. “I wish I could hug every one of you.”

Continue Reading

CTN News App

CTN News App

Recent News

BUY FC 24 COINS

compras monedas fc 24

Volunteering at Soi Dog

Find a Job

Jooble jobs

Free ibomma Movies