Paul Alexander (polio survivor)

Paul Richard "Polio Paul" Alexander (born January 10, 1946) is an American lawyer and paralytic polio survivor. He is the last person living in an iron lung after he contracted polio in 1952 at the age of six.[1][2][3][4]

Paul Alexander
Born
Paul Richard

(1946-01-10) January 10, 1946
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
EducationSouthern Methodist University,
University of Texas at Austin
OccupationLawyer
Known forLast person living inside of an iron lung

Background and education

Alexander contracted polio at the age of six and was paralyzed for life, only able to move his head, neck, and mouth.[5][6][7]

During a major U.S. outbreak of polio in the early 1950s, hundreds of children around Dallas, Texas, including Alexander, were taken to Parkland Hospital. There, children were treated in a ward of iron lungs. He almost died in the hospital before a doctor noticed he was not breathing and rushed him into an iron lung.[8] Beginning in 1954, with help from the March of Dimes and a physical therapist named Mrs. Sullivan, Alexander taught himself glossopharyngeal breathing which allowed him to leave the iron lung for gradually increasing periods of time.[9] Alexander was one of Dallas Independent School District's first homeschooled students. He learned to memorize instead of taking notes. At 21, he graduated second in his class from W.W. Samuell High in 1967, becoming the first person to graduate from a Dallas high school without physically attending a class.[1]

Alexander received a scholarship[5] to Southern Methodist University. He transferred to University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1978, then a Juris Doctor in 1984.[10] He got a job teaching legal terminology to court stenographers at an Austin trade school before being admitted to the bar in 1986.[11][12]

Alexander has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the person who has spent the longest amount of time living in an iron lung.[13]

Book

Alexander self-published his memoir, Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung, in April 2020 with the assistance of friend Norman D. Brown RN (retired). According to The Guardian, they said "It took him more than eight years to write it, using the plastic stick and a pen to tap out his story on the keyboard, or dictating the words to his friend."[1]

References
  1. McRobbie, Linda Rodriguez (May 26, 2020). "The man in the iron lung". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  2. Buncombe, Andrew (November 22, 2017). "America's last iron lung users on their lives spent inside obsolete ventilators". The Independent. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  3. Casa Editorial El Tiempo (February 11, 2021). "Lleva 70 años sin poder moverse y vive gracias a un pulmón de acero". El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  4. Ramirez, Marc (May 25, 2018). "Living inside a canister: Dallas polio survivor is one of few people left in U.S. using iron lung". Dallas News. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  5. Hoffman, Barry (December 1, 2014). "The Man in the Iron Lung". Consumer Health News. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  6. Marchildon, Jackie (November 23, 2017). "Meet One of the Last Polio Survivors To Subscribe to Invincible Craft". Global Citizen. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  7. Adams, Phillip (June 16, 2020). "Man in an iron lung". ABC Radio National. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  8. Panicker, Jobin (February 27, 2018). "Polio survivors from Parkland reunite six decades late". WFAA. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  9. The Guardian.
  10. "Mr. Paul R. Alexander". Martindale-Hubbell. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  11. Ramirez, Marc (July 5, 2018). "Dallas lawyer has lived most of his life in an iron lung". Star Tribune. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  12. Brown, Jennings (November 20, 2017). "The Last of the Iron Lungs". Gizmodo. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  13. "Longest iron lung patient". Guinness World Records. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
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