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Medicine Science

Paul Alexander, 'The Man In the Iron Lung', Has Died (bbc.com) 76

Posted by BeauHD from the inspirational-stories dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The polio survivor known as "the man in the iron lung" has died at the age of 78. Paul Alexander contracted polio in 1952 when he was six, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. The disease left him unable to breathe independently, leading doctors to place him in the metal cylinder, where he would spend the rest of his life. He would go on to earn a law degree -- and practice law -- as well as publish a memoir. [...] In 1952, when he became ill, doctors in his hometown of Dallas operated on him, saving his life. But polio meant his body was no longer able to breathe on his own. The answer was to place him in a so-called iron lung — a metal cylinder enclosing his body up to his neck.

The lung, which he called his "old iron horse," allowed him to breathe. Bellows sucked air out of the cylinder, forcing his lungs to expand and take in air. When the air was let back in, the same process in reverse made his lungs deflate. After years, Alexander eventually learned to breathe by himself so that he was able to leave the lung for short periods of time. Like most polio survivors placed in iron lungs, he was not expected to survive long. But he lived for decades, long after the invention of the polio vaccine in the 1950s all but eradicated the disease in the Western world. [...] Advances in medicine made iron lungs obsolete by the 1960s, replaced by ventilators. But Alexander kept living in the cylinder because, he said, he was used to it. He was recognized by Guinness World Records as the person who lived the longest in an iron lung.
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Paul Alexander, 'The Man In the Iron Lung', Has Died More

Paul Alexander, 'The Man In the Iron Lung', Has Died

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  • No thanks (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @08:39AM (#64314729)
    When I read stories like this I have to shudder. Life inside a metal tube with pumps and gizmos keeping you alive to spend more time in the metal tube. While some posters in here advocate for grasping for that last millisecond of life, no matter the situation, there is a whole spectrum of outlooks to a whole spectrum of people.

    For my own outlook, I'd seriously prefer not to live in a situation where I had to live in a steel canister. I'm certain that if I was placed in one because of polio, I'd conveniently "forget" to get back in at some point. But that's me. I love doing things, going places, and experiences. Others might not.

    A convenient self-analysis might be, would you rather spend life in prison or be executed? I'd take execution, and as quickly as possible as a preference. I have always been up front with people and my family - once I hear that bell tolling, like a terminal disease diagnosis - I'm checking out. I've seen too much of that deterioration, pain and loss of dignity to think otherwise.

    • Re:No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FalcDot ( 1224920 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @09:12AM (#64314821)

      Do note that this happened to him when he was only six years old. I'm convinced your own love of doing things and going places may have started that young, but was shaped and nurtured over the following years. This man experienced vastly different formative years. It's no surprise that his outlook on life is very different from yours.

    • I hope that you (or I) never have to find out, but people seem to be able to adapt to their limits - be it a disability or being in prison.

      That man started living in the iron lung when he was 6, so this is the life he knew and got used to. As I understand, he did not want to die and it seems that he managed to accomplish some things (like getting a law degree and practice law) that would seem pointless and difficult considering the condition he was in - the difficulty to write things down or read books for

    • Re:No thanks (Score:5, Informative)

      by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @09:42AM (#64314907) Homepage Journal

      I would like to point out that this disease was worldwide and common throughout most of human history. Vaccines stomped it out.

      We have resurgences now and then because no solution is perfect, but the reason the vast majority of us have never had to worry about polio and may not have even heard of it until now is thanks to vaccines.

    • The most important line in the article:

      Advances in medicine made iron lungs obsolete by the 1960s, replaced by ventilators. But Alexander kept living in the cylinder because, he said, he was used to it.

      Reading that it went from an incredible story to one of insanity (consider that he required people's assistance at all times).

      • Would it be one of those tubes inserted through a hole your throat? Wouldn't call opting for the iron long that crazy. Though the story is a little unclear since apparently he was even able to breathe on his own at times too.

      • Ventilators are used because they're cheaper and more convenient in some ways, not because it's better for the patient. The iron lung pulls air into the patient's lungs more naturally, so the patient is able to speak and doesn't need to be sedated to oblivion. Having tubes shoved in your airways is not a pleasant experience, and it's not something that works well in the long term. Most iron lung patients don't want to lose the last bit of their agency so there is (or used to be) a community of iron lung pat

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      A convenient self-analysis might be, would you rather spend life in prison or be executed? I'd take execution, and as quickly as possible as a preference.

      This take is incredibly popular -- many, perhaps most, people (who aren't actually facing imprisonment) claim they would choose death over going to prison.

      And yet, while prison suicide rates are much higher than in the general public, it's still only a small fraction of the prison population who, when it comes down to it, actually kill themselves. It turns out that when the choice becomes real rather than theoretical, people will cling much more tightly to life than they think they will.

    • Re:No thanks (Score:4, Interesting)

      by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @09:52AM (#64314933)

      It's funny how so many people in good health will talk a big game about such things but somehow when faced with death the vast majority cling on to life for all they're worth. Maybe you're one of the rare ones that when faced with terminal illness you'll walk your talk but to talk with such assurance in regards to something that so few ever follow through on just sounds both arrogant and naive to me.

      It's like the guy who talks about how if they were ever facing an armed attacker they'd just kick their ass and save the day. Maybe but probably not.

      Furthermore, this guy made a lot with the life he was delt earning himself a law degree and practicing law and eventually getting to the point where he could spend small amounts of time outside the lung. He likely forged plenty of friendships and personal relationships along the way as well. He wouldn't have achieved any of that if he had just given up and died.

      • It's funny how so many people in good health will talk a big game about such things but somehow when faced with death the vast majority cling on to life for all they're worth. Maybe you're one of the rare ones that when faced with terminal illness you'll walk your talk but to talk with such assurance in regards to something that so few ever follow through on just sounds both arrogant and naive to me.

        In fairness though there aren't many good options. Once you're beyond a certain point, suicide becomes very d

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Whibla ( 210729 )

          Once you're beyond a certain point, suicide becomes very difficult, it's only something you can do before you succumb.

          But it's something you can prepare for in advance.

          And this applies to the social aspects as well as the technical ones.

          Watching a relative get destroyed by Alzheimers at the moment.

          My sincerest sympathies, to you, and yours!

          I don't mean to be crass, but I wonder if you're aware of the findings regarding 40 Hz sound and light therapy for mitigating (not curing) the progression of the disease? I only mention it because it would be relatively cheap and trivial to implement...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Really all I'm getting at that it's awfully easy to talk a big game about what you'd do if faced with a bad death when you're in good health. It's a whole other thing when you're staring oblivion in the eyes. As I said before, to talk with such assurance about what you'd do when faced with said oblivion isn't any different than talking about taking dramatic action while unarmed against armed attackers. The fact is unless youve been in that spot you have no real idea what you'll do or want once you're in it.

    • Re:No thanks (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:21AM (#64315021)

      Humans are innately adaptable, it's really our absolutely most beneficial evolutionary advantage.

      I got to find it again but I had read a study that surveyed amputees and it showed after a certain amount of time the vast majority of them qualify their own quality-of-life around the same as non-amputees. It becomes remarkably easy for things to just become "the new normal".

    • When I read stories like this I have to shudder. Life inside a metal tube with pumps and gizmos keeping you alive to spend more time in the metal tube.
      While some posters in here advocate for grasping for that last millisecond of life, no matter the situation, there is a whole spectrum of outlooks to a whole spectrum of people.

      For my own outlook, I'd seriously prefer not to live in a situation where I had to live in a steel canister. I'm certain that if I was placed in one because of polio, I'd conveniently "forget" to get back in at some point. But that's me. I love doing things, going places, and experiences. Others might not.

      A convenient self-analysis might be, would you rather spend life in prison or be executed? I'd take execution, and as quickly as possible as a preference. I have always been up front with people and my family - once I hear that bell tolling, like a terminal disease diagnosis - I'm checking out. I've seen too much of that deterioration, pain and loss of dignity to think otherwise.

      I'm reminded of that saying "No one wants to live to be 100 until they're 99."

    • >For my own outlook, I'd seriously prefer not to live in a situation
      >where I had to live in a steel canister.

      But he didn't!

      "After years, Alexander eventually learned to breathe by himself so that he was able to leave the lung for short periods of time"

      He learned to breathe in and out on his own.

      But, as it was a conscious act, it wasn't something he could do while thinking.

      Nonetheless he spent significant time out of the device.

      AFAIK, he was the only one who ever learned to do this.

      hawk

    • When I read stories like this I have to shudder. Life inside a metal tube with pumps and gizmos keeping you alive to spend more time in the metal tube.

      I think the same way you do.

      For my own outlook, I'd seriously prefer not to live in a situation where I had to live in a steel canister.

      And yet when we find ourselves in these positions that we know how we would act, we don't act like that. We are wrong.

      Reality is FAR more intense and detailed than we expect. When we find ourselves in these situations, we either adapt or die. The man in question chose to adapt. He was right, we are wrong. He is dead, we are alive.

  • That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger, except for polio.

  • Well, unfortunately, soon it came to be
    Mr. Frump's dying day
    And now I bring to you the very last thing
    That Mr. Frump had to say...

  • Not mentioned: he died of Covid (Score:5, Informative)

    by SixMinutes ( 4101625 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @09:36AM (#64314891)

    Not mentioned in the news: he died of covid. We're currently creating a new generation of people wounded by a virus in long covid patients. For polio, we broke out all our medical and engineering ingenuity to eradicate the virus and to support its survivors. Instead today we are carefully ignoring covid and the huge numbers of people it leaves injured or disabled.

    So after all that, for an accomplished life-long polio survivor to be killed by covid has some really painful poetry to it.

  • We eradicated Polio, but with their constant anti-vaccine nonsense and fear-mongering the Republicans are bringing it back, baby! Woo hoo!

    • Re:Thank goodness (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:43AM (#64315097)

      Well, Measles are back, why not Polio?

      We can do it! Make America Sick Again.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by iggymanz ( 596061 )

        Yeah except the measles brought by illegals, have an outbreak in Chicago from the "new arrivals", meaning diseased unvetted randoms the Biden administration lets pour over our border and then makes states pay billions for this lawlessness.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjames ( 1099 )

          People could get their vaccines and not have that problem...

          • Wrong, most people could get vaccine and not have problem.

            Here's the reality, 95% will get immnunity from first vaccination as infant. Then when 2nd shot around age 4-6 the number gets to 97%.

            Never 100% percent, those 3-5 percent will be in bad shape if a diseased illegal let in by Biden administration lawlessness and lack of vetting including disease vetting/vaccination deficiency vetting that was done in past.

            Conclusion, the Biden administration is letting in diseased illegals that are a threat even to a

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by sjames ( 1099 )

              Even those who don't gain immunity from vaccination will benefit from there being so few potential carriers out there assuming others also get their vaccinations.

              Keep in mind, the diseases can also come in from wealthy foreign tourists.

              • Here in Chicago, the disease came from illegals, it's in the news. Biden administration in their wokeness think lawlessness including lawless border with disease and deadly narcotics flowing over is social progress.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by sjames ( 1099 )

                  So 15 people out of thousands shipped to Chicago by the governor of Texas who hadn't been immunized got the measles. Now they're immunized.

                  So apparently the Republican governor of Texas thought sending them to Chicago was the right thing to do.

                  • Guess again, Biden administration is shipping them in.

                    Utterly lawless.

                  • What nonsense are you trying to spew saying "now they're immunized". Immunization does nothing when a person already has the disease as those diseased illegal immigration criminal had.

        • Measles, regardless of where it comes from, has been a preventable illness since the 1960s.

          • False. With the first vaccination, 95% get immunity and that is to age 4-6 when 2nd shot in series is given it gets to nice 97 or more value depending which study you accept... but it's never 100 percent and people have had measles even while vaccinated. It fades with age and with certain conditions and diseases too.

            So, it's preventable for most people, except when it isn't. Sucks to be in that small percentile when a diseased illegal alien comes by, like in Chicago.

            Normally and in the past, immigrants

            • So, it's preventable for most people, except when it isn't. Sucks to be in that small percentile when a diseased illegal alien comes by, like in Chicago.

              Unvaccinated American citizens are just as much of a threat to those vaccinated exceptions as those dirty aliens, and there are many, many more of them.

              You remind me of Joseph Goebbels narrative of Jews as carriers of disease.

        • And you think they could have infected any remotely relevant number if a relevant number of people were still immune? You'll always have a few people who will get sick even despite a vaccine. As you might have noticed with Covid lately. Yes, vaccines are not a panacea, there is no "100% perfect" vaccine. No, not even with a vaccine like that against Measles that has been in existence for over half a century.

          Now, you may wonder why we still had no relevant outbreaks in the past. I mean, let's be honest here,

          • You seem to be confused about something, you think a measles vaccination series confers 100% immunity? doesn't fade with age? doesn't fade with autoimmune diseases?

            You are just a typical libtard spouting off virtue signalling while being utterly ignorant of science.

            We have had measles outbreaks in the past, you're ignorant of history too.

            • Where the hell did I say any of that? Did you even read what I wrote there?

              No vaccine is 100% perfect. But if you have a vaccine that conveys about 95% immunity and you have a 95% vaccination status in your population, an outbreak becomes virtually impossible because the odd person that could transmit the disease has a very low chance of "finding" someone to transmit it to.

              If you have an unvaccinated population, the chance of finding such a person is, well, close to 100% (because there are always people tha

      • America was never sick.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Well, Measles are back, why not Polio?

        We can do it! Make America Sick Again.

        This is a good post... however Polio hasn't been wiped out worldwide, neither have measles, we've only gotten rid of them in the developed world, there are still cases in the developing and undeveloped world.

        You'd have to be a complete fool to assume that it couldn't travel from the poorest parts of India to the US... then again if COVID taught us anything we have no shortage of fools who'll believe anything, no matter how outlandish, spurious of irrational if it means not having to face up to a slightly

        • I think Smallpox is the only disease that has been completely wiped out by human actions in recorded history.

          It only exists in some research labs in various countries anymore. True.

          Let's now also realize that some of these countries keep telling our idiots to not get vaccinated for various diseases and now ponder whether a country has a problem with infecting some of their citizens with it and sending them over when they have no problem sending them to a meat grinder in a war.

  • ...of Covid (Score:4, Interesting)

    by skinfaxi ( 212627 ) on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:11AM (#64314993) Journal
    He survived polio all those years but somebody brought Covid to him.

  • Oh, horrors, who would take a vaccine that might make you stupid... (chance being one in how many decimal places to the right?).

  • Did anyone mention yet that COVID contributed to his death. Obviously someone did not observer protocol and brought the disease in to him. Its unlikely that he went out and got himself sick.

  • My parents used to live next door to him, and I went to visit him a few times. It's amazing how much he accomplished given his circumstances.

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