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A man from Texas named Paul Alexander has been inside of an iron lung machine for more than 70 years, after being afflicted with polio from the neck down since 1952. Alexander, a guy with an iron lung, is a polio survivor, who has spent his life since the age of 6 inside a tank respirator. This medical piece of equipment was regarded as a one-of-a-kind miraculous invention at the time, that allowed the ones suffering from polio to breathe and survive.
Alexander has been called the “frog-breathing” human after the mechanism of the machine that mimics the respiratory ways of the amphibian, helping one to breathe. The iron lung machine weighs around 600 pounds and works by vacuuming air artificially and forcing it past the vocal cords and into the lungs. This technique is essentially known as the “frog-breathing” way of surviving.
Living for more than 70 years, Paul Alexander stands to be the longest iron lung patient declared by the Guinness World Records (GWR) in March.
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The Story of the Guy with Iron Lung
According to The Guardian's documentation of Paul's story, the year 1952 saw temperatures shooting over 38 degrees Celsius. A day in July had six year-old Paul Alexander playing in the summer rain when he suddenly began to feel unwell. His neck hurt, and his head was pounding. When he went home, his mother instantly put him to bed, but what the family didn’t see coming was one of the worst cases of poliomyelitis.
Over the course of the next five days, Paul had lost the ability to speak, cough, swallow, or even hold a crayon. He was taken to the Parkland Hospital with a dedicated polio ward but with no place for him. With multiple sick children everywhere, the family was forced to wait for admittance. When the doctor finally saw him, he broke the grim news to his mother that there was hardly anything left to be done for him.
The boy was left on a gurney in the hallway, barely breathing. He would have died if it hadn’t been for a second doctor who performed an emergency tracheotomy on him, rushing him to the operation theatre.
The tracheotomy was performed to suck out the lung congestion which his paralyzed body couldn’t move. Paul Alexander woke up after three days encased inside a canister-like machine that bellowed and sighed much like a pair of lungs.
The ventilator of the machine resembled a metal coffin that required the patient to lie inside with the opening end of the structure enclosed tightly around the neck. Paul was now a “frog-breathing” human who had to draw air into his lungs through the machine and was bound to be in this state for seven more decades to come.
He recalls that being in the machine in a ward that had several children in the same state made him want to make friends, but he shared that “every time I’d make a friend, they’d die.” He also remembers the doctors who went on the rounds saying “he’s going to die today” and that “he shouldn’t be alive.” These angered Paul and made him want to live.
How Does an Iron Lung Machine Work?
The iron lung tends to imitate the way a frog breathes and that is why the technique of breathing through it is also known as “frog breathing.” The machine works by creating a vacuum and mechanically drawing oxygen into the lungs of the patient whose respiratory functions and central nervous system have failed due to polio.
The machine is a non-invasive negative-pressure ventilator that artificially maintains the process of respiration in cases of acute polio infection. These machines were used for the first time in the 1920s and were considered a miraculous invention. They worked by creating pressure on the lungs, causing them to expand and contract, helping the patient to breathe.
The device was, in most cases, used for two weeks at the most till the patient could breathe on their own again. However, some polio survivors who may have had permanent respiratory paralysis were required to rely on these machines for a longer period of time.
Paul Alexander Chose to Remain in the Iron Lung Even When Newer Versions of Respiratory Devices Came Up
These heavy iron lungs are now replaced with newer designs that have fewer contraptions and are comparatively hassle-free. However, Paul Alexander has chosen to be inside his original machine for several decades now.
He has also revealed the reason for his decision to The Guardian, explaining that because he lived in the device for so long, he now knew how to breathe for short periods of time without it. This was necessary as he had to be taken off the device time and again for nurses to attend to his other bodily functions.
Paul also never wants to have a hole in his throat again, as was reported by The Guardian. This was another reason why he chose to be inside his original iron lung for so long.
As would be incredibly difficult for most of us to believe, the iron lung was not able to stop Paul from living his life to the fullest. He has in fact become a trial lawyer, representing clients in court in a three-piece suit and a modified wheelchair!
In his lifetime, Paul has not only been on planes, prayed in the church, and even fallen in love, but he has also published his own book, titled Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung. What is even more wonderful is that this 155-page memoir was written by Paul himself over the course of five years, with a pen carefully attached to a stick inside his mouth!
