Highlight his resilience: Polio Survivor Paul Alexander Passes Away at 78

Mar 15, 2024

In the 1950s and 1960s doctors used to place people in iron lungs if they were unable to breathe on their own. A boy named Paul Alexander, aged 6, contracted polio in 1952. He was only six years old, at the time. The disease paralyzed his entire body from the neck down.

Photos of him and other children like him inside these huge steel devices are haunting to look at.

Paul Alexander, like many other unlucky children and young people of the era, was confined to an iron lung machine for the rest of his life. The machine did the breathing for him his mangled paralyzed body was unable to do. In spite of this sad affliction, Paul defied all the odds by getting an education, a degree, a job, even… he managed to write a book, too.

On March 12, 2024, Paul Alexander died. The “Man in the Iron Lung” they called him. He surprised medical science, friends, family, by living far longer than anyone had expected him to. Dealt a rough hand in life, he still made the most of it. RIP, Mr. Alexander.

Subscribe to Explore Psychology

Dark Secrets

Discussion about this post

Dark Secrets

Highlight his resilience: Polio Survivor Paul Alexander Passes Away at 78

Suggested Readings

Discussion about this post