An American with an 'iron lung' died: he was a TikTok star and loved life, although he could not do anything on his own

American Paul Alexander, who lived in an iron lung for more than 79 years, died at the age of 70. He dreamed of flying kites and playing baseball, but polio ruined his plans. Tells about the life of an unusual person USAToday.

Photo: iStock.com/NNehring

Paul Alexander contracted polio in 1952 when he was six years old, leaving him almost completely paralyzed.

Due to his illness, he could not breathe on his own, and doctors placed him in a metal cylinder, where he spent the rest of his life.

This cylinder covered his body up to his neck. And it was called the Angstrom apparatus, or “iron lung”. It was created at the end of the 1952th century, but improved in XNUMX. The device is a sealed pressure chamber the length of a man, inside which a pressure different from atmospheric pressure is created. By alternately decreasing and increasing pressure, the device allows air to be pumped in and out of a person’s lungs, helping him breathe.

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An artificial lung allowed Alexander to breathe. Over time, he learned to do this on his own, sometimes even leaving the cylinder for a short time.

Most people who survived polio and were placed in iron lungs did not live long. But Paul managed to live for several decades, after the invention of the polio vaccine in the 1950s had virtually eradicated the disease from developed countries.

Alexander received a law degree, practiced law, and also published memoirs. He was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the person who lived the longest thanks to an iron lung.

“That kind of drive to bite into life and hold on no matter what is what defined Paul. You can’t teach it,” said his friend William Dendy, a retired financial consultant from DeSoto, Texas. He occasionally hired Alexander to speak at Rotary Club meetings.

He received his bachelor's degree in law from the University of Texas at Austin. Paul preached the importance of vaccines and passionately fought to eradicate polio.

In recent years, Alexander has become famous on social networks, especially on TikTok under the username @ironlungman. He has amassed over 300 subscribers. Alexander posted videos and answered questions about his life in the iron lung.

“I have goals and dreams to do one more thing before I leave. I plan to achieve these goals with my friends,” Paul said in his most popular video, which has over 56 million views. “I want to talk to the world about polio and the millions of children who are not protected from this disease.” They must be protected."

The last video posted to his account on February 26 revealed that Alexander was taken to the emergency room after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Although Paul was able to use a ventilator in hospital and return home, he was reportedly still weak and had difficulty eating and drinking water.

A frightening epidemic of past decades

These days, polio is largely a distant memory in the United States, but for those growing up in the 1950s, it was frightening. At the height of the epidemic, almost 2000 people died annually from the disease, and 16 were left paralyzed. The disease affects the central nervous system of the body.

Harriet Seidman, a Canadian writer based in Winnipeg, interviewed Alexander while writing her Second Chance, a young adult novel set during the pandemic. She named her character after Paul. In 2022, the book won Canada's Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People.

“He told me everything about his life and the difficulties he had to face, and it was incredible,” she admitted.

Alexander told her how, at age 6, he was placed in a giant room and intubated. He spent 18 months there with teachers who, according to his recollections, were often hostile and indifferent.

Frog breathing technique

Alexander was able to breathe outside the machine for short periods of time using a technique called frog breathing, which he learned in high school from a physical therapist.

“He swallowed air and forced it into his lungs,” Dandy explained. “Then the increase in pressure would eventually cause him to exhale.” He had to consciously do this all the time until he had the so-called iron lungs.”

It was because of this that Alexander was able to attend high school and eventually earn a degree at UT-Austin, despite an inauspicious start. The teachers abandoned Alexander in his dorm room, where he spent several days without food, water or care. There he met Norman D. Brown, a professional nurse who took Alexander under his care.

According to Brown, Paul was "the most wonderful patient I have ever had."

They eventually became close and became lifelong friends.

It was Brown who shared Alexander's baseball dreams and helped him write his memoir, Three Minutes for a Dog, a title referring to a breathing technique Paul wanted to learn as a child in exchange for a puppy.

Alexander, he said, was an extremely intelligent man and amazingly able to control his environment, although he was completely dependent on others. Everything from feeding to washing and brushing teeth had to be physically done by someone else.

Friends say that it was not only the breathing technique that helped Alexander survive. It was his determination and desire to live, learn, and gain new experiences, despite his condition. He learned to please people and get them to do what he wanted.

“He was able to coerce, persuade and involve a variety of people in meeting his needs,” Brown said.

According to him, Alexander was a sociable and positive person.

“You can’t live 70 years in an iron lung and not have a strong will to live,” Brown noted.

“He always had a broader view”

Over the past decade, Alexander has occasionally spoken at meetings of Rotary International, a global organization that has long fought to eradicate polio worldwide. Dandy reached out to Alexander immediately after he was named Rotary District Governor in Dallas. He convinced him to make a trip south to Kerrville, near San Antonio, to speak with Rotary members in 2015.

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“We put him in a portable unit, put the iron lungs in a trailer and drove him away,” Dendy shared his memories.

According to him, Alexander will call him late in the evening to discuss his latest ideas.

“He hardly ever slept,” Dandy noted. “Paul wanted to go to France, and I had to sit down and tell him the logistics and compare it to going to Kerrville.” He always took a broader view."

But what struck Dandy most of all, as he said, was Alexander’s will to live.

“Most of these children, having found themselves in a situation requiring lifelong imprisonment in the apparatus, gave up and died,” Dendy emphasized. “But he didn’t do it.” His determination will always be an inspiration to me.”

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