Texas Man Has Been Living in Machine That Helps Him Breathe For More Than 70 years
• A man has been living with an iron lung for 70 years due to polio he got as a child
• In 1952, an outbreak of an illness in Texas caused shutdowns, closed pubs, and social distancing orders
• The virus had no cure or vaccine, overwhelming the healthcare system
• Paul Alexander survived the illness but was left paralyzed and needing an iron lung
• He learned “frog breathing,” passed high school, got law degrees, and became an advocate for polio and Covid-19 awareness