RIP 'Polio Paul'
 

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RIP 'Polio Paul'

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https://news.sky.com/story/paul-alexander-the-man-in-the-iron-lung-dies-after-70-years-living-in-tank-13093818

This news makes me feel very sad.

What an amazing guy to keep on going and achieving all that he did,  given his tragic circumstances.


 
Posted : 13/03/2024 12:11 pm
jamj1974, J-R, avdave2 and 3 people reacted
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That is remarkable. I'd never heard of him before. Hard to imagine living like that.


 
Posted : 13/03/2024 12:28 pm
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I was reading about him in the Guinness Book of World Records a week or so ago. The headline is a bit deceptive saying his spent his life in an iron lung though.


 
Posted : 13/03/2024 12:48 pm
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Seem to remember listening to a podcast with him - as one of the last of his generation there wasn't anyone left making and servicing iron lungs, so any spares had to be reverse engineered. He ended up with a guy who's day job is building hotrods doing the running repairs on his.


 
Posted : 13/03/2024 1:36 pm
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I talked to a chap in one of the London hospitals who was in a similar position a few years back - not quite as bad, he alternated between a full iron lung and a mobile version that did the job at home when his lungs were in better shape. It was odd to see a bit of ancient tech like that clunking away in a modern hospital environment.

EDIT: Just looked him up, he died a few years after I talked to him, and was the longest-surviving iron lung patient at that time.

https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/2128


 
Posted : 14/03/2024 4:44 pm

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