{"id":10175,"date":"2025-10-31T16:55:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=10175"},"modified":"2025-10-31T16:55:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:55:32","slug":"76-year-old-man-paralyzed-from-polio-at-6-was-one-of-the-last-people-with-an-iron-lung-my-life-is-incredible-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=10175","title":{"rendered":"76-year-old man, paralyzed from polio at 6, was one of the last people with an iron lung: \u2018My life is incredible\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"104\" data-end=\"148\"><strong data-start=\"104\" data-end=\"148\">Paul Alexander: The Man in the Iron Lung<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"150\" data-end=\"387\">Paul Alexander lived a remarkable life. After contracting polio at age six in 1952, he was left paralyzed and required an iron lung to breathe\u2014a machine dating back to 1928. Despite the odds, Paul refused to let his condition define him.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"389\" data-end=\"501\">\u201cI\u2019m not going to accept anyone\u2019s limitations on my life. Not gonna do it. My life is incredible,\u201d he once said.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"503\" data-end=\"713\">After a misdiagnosis left him nearly declared dead, a second doctor saved him with an emergency tracheotomy. Paul woke up three days later, unable to move or speak, surrounded by rows of children in iron lungs.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"715\" data-end=\"987\">Polio was rampant in the U.S. at the time\u2014nearly 58,000 people were infected in 1952 alone. But Paul\u2019s spirit remained unbroken. He fought to regain some breathing independence using a technique called \u201cfrog-breathing,\u201d and gradually spent more time outside the iron lung.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"989\" data-end=\"1229\">Despite being rejected by schools for being \u201ctoo crippled,\u201d he graduated high school with honors and became the first person to do so without attending in person. He later earned a law degree, passed the bar, and practiced law for 30 years.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1231\" data-end=\"1422\">He also wrote a memoir by typing with a pen attached to a stick. Even with newer technology available, Paul preferred his iron lung, sourcing parts from abandoned machines to keep it running.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1424\" data-end=\"1539\">Paul passed away in March 2024, remembered not for his condition but for his resilience, warmth, and determination.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1541\" data-end=\"1610\">\u201cI wanted to accomplish the things I was told I couldn\u2019t. And I did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Alexander: The Man in the Iron Lung Paul Alexander lived a remarkable life. After contracting polio at age six in 1952, he was left paralyzed and required an iron lung to breathe\u2014a machine dating back to 1928. Despite the odds, Paul refused to let his condition define him. \u201cI\u2019m not going to accept anyone\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=10175\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;76-year-old man, paralyzed from polio at 6, was one of the last people with an iron lung: \u2018My life is incredible\u2019&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10177,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175\/revisions\/10177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}