Man Known as ‘Polio Paul’ Survives 70 Years in an Iron Lung Despite Being Paralyzed From the Neck Down

A Texas man known as “Polio Paul” has now spent more than 70 years living inside an iron lung.

Paul Alexander, also known as “Polio Paul,” contracted polio in 1952 when he was just 6 years old, just three years before the vaccine was invented. As polio attacks motor neurons in the spinal cord, Alexander was left paralyzed from the neck down and was unable to breathe without assistance.

Alexander was named as the longest-running iron lung patient by the Guinness World Records earlier in 2023.

Alexander underwent an emergency tracheostomy after his diagnosis and was placed into an iron lung, an airtight machine that covers the entire body except for the head and allows the patient to breathe by using negative pressure to draw in oxygen and expand their lungs, as reported by the Mirror.

For the most part, iron lungs are no longer in use and have not been manufactured since the 1960s due to more modern technology, but Alexander plans to stick with the machine due to its familiarity and because he does not want to undergo the procedures necessary to use more modern treatments.

Instead, he learned a technique called “frog breathing,” where he uses the throat muscles to swallow oxygen and push the air into his lungs, enabling him to breathe outside of the iron lung, according to a 2020 interview with The Guardian.

The technique allowed Alexander to live for a couple of hours at a time outside of the iron lung. He completed high school and graduated from college and law school, practicing law for several decades. He has outlived his parents, his older brother Nick, and several of his friends.

“I think it’s why I fight so hard because there are people standing there with the gall to tell me what I’m going to do with my life … You have no right to tell me what to do,” Alexander told The Guardian. “You should get down on your knees and thank God it wasn’t you.”

Polio was eradicated from the United States in 1979. The World Health Organization declared that the western Pacific region and all of the Americas were polio-free by the year 2000. Now, there are only several dozens of cases in three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.