Key Takeaways:
– Paul Alexander, a remarkable individual who lived most of his life in an iron lung due to polio, passed away at 78.
– Despite his condition, Paul achieved significant milestones, including becoming a lawyer and author.
– He was a source of inspiration for many, as evidenced by the outpouring of support on his GoFundMe page.
– Paul’s life story includes battling polio at age 6, spending decades in an iron lung, and advocating for polio vaccination.
– His determination led him to graduate college, earn a law degree, and practice as a courtroom attorney for 30 years.
– Paul also shared his journey through an autobiography and was working on a second book at the time of his passing.
– He gained a following on TikTok, where he shared insights into his life and advocated for vaccination.
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Paul Alexander, a man who remarkably spent nearly seven decades of his life confined within the confines of an iron lung, passed away at the age of 78, his brother Philip Alexander confirmed. His journey, marked by extraordinary resilience and determination, came to an end on a Monday afternoon.
The news of his passing was shared on a GoFundMe page the following Tuesday, a platform initially set up to support his living and medical expenses. The page quickly became a testament to his impact, filled with messages from individuals inspired by his life story. “Reading all the comments, it’s absolutely incredible to see how many lives Paul touched. I’m profoundly grateful,” Philip expressed on the fundraising platform.
The circumstances surrounding Paul’s death remain uncertain. He had been hospitalized three weeks prior due to a Covid-19 infection but had tested negative in the days leading up to his passing, as per Philip’s account.
Tributes poured in for Paul, with Christopher Ulmer, the GoFundMe campaign organizer, saying, “Paul, you will be deeply missed but your legacy will live on. Thank you for sharing your incredible story with us.”
Paul’s battle with polio began in the summer of 1952 when he was just six years old, amid the peak of the polio epidemic in the United States. That year alone, over 21,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported. However, the advent of vaccines in the late 1950s marked the eventual elimination of polio in the country, as stated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease left Paul paralyzed from the neck down, necessitating his life-long reliance on an iron lung to breathe. His autobiography recounts the dire prognosis given by doctors and the community’s efforts to keep him alive during power outages by manually operating the iron lung.
In March 2023, Paul was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world’s longest surviving iron lung patient, having lived with the device for 70 years. Despite his physical limitations, Paul’s ambitions knew no bounds. He developed breathing techniques that allowed him brief periods outside the iron lung, pursued higher education, and had a successful 30-year career as a courtroom attorney.
His autobiography, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung,” details his journey, including the challenge of learning to breathe independently for up to three minutes, a feat that earned him a dog. Paul’s story continued to inspire as he worked on a second book, demonstrating his writing process in a CNN interview in 2022, using a pen attached to a stick held in his mouth to type.
Paul’s dreams and refusal to accept limitations were evident in his words, “I’ve got some big dreams. I’m not going to accept from anybody their limitations. My life is incredible.”
He also embraced social media, establishing a “Polio Paul” TikTok account where he shared his accomplishments and answered questions about his life in an iron lung. At his death, he had amassed 300,000 followers and over 4.5 million likes. Through his first TikTok video, Paul emphasized the importance of polio vaccination, warning against the risk of another epidemic if children remain unprotected.