The Heartbreaking Story Of Man Who Has Been Locked In A Machine For Over 60 Years

The early 20th century was dominated by technologies' proliferation, especially in healthcare. One of the era's most successful inventions was the iron lung, which enabled numerous victims of respiratory diseases to breathe again.

Polio, particularly, was treated through the use of iron lungs. While the disease has almost been completely eradicated due to the development of a vaccine in 1955, there were several deadly outbreaks in the 1940s and 50s.

Kids were particularly susceptible to the disease; also, most of the people who required respiratory treatment using an iron lung were kids. However, very few of those kids continued using the device into their adult lives.

One of those few exceptions is, now 70-year-old, Paul Alexander from Dallas, Texas: he has been using an iron lung since 1952.

Paul contracted polio when he was only five years old. It left him with permanent respiratory damage.

The iron lung works by having patients lie inside it. Then, the device is tightly enclosed around the patient's neck, creating an artificial vacuum that mechanically fills the lungs up with oxygen. It wasn't intended for long-term use.

Therefore, Paul’s continued reliance on the iron lung has not been without its problems. The devices haven't been manufactured since the 1960s, so Paul was forced to issue an online plea for help in 2015 when his lung began to malfunction.

There are only ten people left in the world who still use iron lungs, and they have to rely on costly and hard-to-obtain spare parts.

Fortunately, Paul’s plea for help was answered by a kindly mechanic named Brady Richards, who offered to help Paul get his iron lung back in tip-top condition.

“I looked for years to find someone who knew how to work on iron lungs,” Paul revealed in an interview with Gizmodo. “Brady Richards, it’s a miracle that I found him.”

The iron lung is so old that when Brady brought it into his workshop to repair, his younger staff had no idea what it was. “When we first brought the tube into the shop, one of my younger employees asked me what I was doing with these smoker grills,” he claimed.

Tragically, it was not just Paul’s lungs that were ravaged by polio. He was also paralyzed from the neck downwards. However, despite his traumatic start in life, Paul never let his condition hold him back; on the contrary, he achieved many of his dreams.

He became a trial lawyer, and he's currently in the process of writing a book. Until his condition deteriorated, he could attend trails using a wheelchair. He's also writing his memoir using a pen in his mouth.

Below you can find Paul’s 2015 plea for help:

“When I transferred to the University of Texas, they were horrified to think that I was going to bring my iron lung down, but I did, and I put it in the dorm, and I lived in the dorm with my iron lung.”

“I had a thousand friends before it was over with, who all wanted to find out what’s that guy downstairs with a head sticking out of a machine doing here?”

Paul now spends most of his life inside the iron lung. While there are modern alternatives available to the device, people who are paralyzed by polio have claimed that they're nowhere near as effective for treating their condition.

As Martha Ann Lillard, who has spent more than 60 years using an iron lung, said: “I can’t use other types of ventilators because of inflammation that comes with Polio. I could be more rested if I stayed in the lung full time. But I choose to be up as much as possible.”

Paul’s lung is seen above being repaired by Brady.

“Some people have said I’d rather die than leave my iron lung, and it makes it sound like I’m not trying to be modern, and it’s not like that at all,” Lillard added in an interview with NBC News.

“It feels wonderful, actually, if you’re not breathing well. When I was first put into it, it was such a relief. It makes all the difference when you’re not breathing.”

Lillard is seen below as a young woman inside her iron lung.

The last major outbreak of polio in the US took place in 1952.

Nevertheless, it's not just humans who can suffer from outbreaks of respiratory diseases. Reportedly, a highly contagious dog flu recently ravaged the United States. Watch this video to find out more:

Reference: Viral Thread