Alexander called the iron lung, a machine that helped him breathe, “my friend” and “my enemy.”CreditCredit...Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News, via AP
Paul Alexander who was paralyzed with polio at age 6, confined for much of his life to a yellow iron lung that kept him alive died at 78 with unimaginable achievements for a person like him. The news was shared by his brother Philip Alexander on Monday.
Paul Alexander spent the huge majority of the past 70 years in an iron lung and he was able to earn a law degree, write a book and, late in life, build a following on TikTok.
He was not expected to survive after that diagnosis, and even when he beat those odds, his life was mostly constrained by a machine in which he could not move.
His death was announced Tuesday on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for his housing and health care.
“It is absolutely incredible to read all the comments and know that so many people were inspired by Paul. I am just so grateful,” Philip said on the GoFundMe page.
The exact cause of Paul’s death is unclear. He was admitted to the hospital three weeks ago due to a Covid-19 infection but was no longer testing positive this week, Philip said.
“Paul, you will be missed but always remembered. Thanks for sharing your story with us,” Christopher Ulmer, organizer of the GoFundMe fundraiser, said on the page.
Paul developed polio in the summer of 1952, at the age of 6. It was the height of the polio epidemic; more than 21,000 paralytic polio cases were recorded that year in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Today, polio is considered eliminated in the United States thanks to vaccines that were developed in the late 1950s, according to the CDC.
The disease left Paul paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe on his own. He was placed in an iron lung, a large metal cylinder that varies air pressure to stimulate breathing, according to his autobiography.
“The doctors told us Paul could not possibly live,” Doris Alexander, Paul’s mother, said in his autobiography. “There were a few times when the electrical power failed and then the lung had to be pumped by hand. Our neighbours would run over and help us pump it.”
Paul spent the next seven decades in an iron lung. In March 2023, he was declared the longest-surviving iron lung patient in the world by the Guinness World Records.
Paul’s ambitions were not limited by his condition. He learned breathing techniques that allowed him to leave the iron lung for a few hours at a time. He graduated college, earned a law degree and went on to practice as a courtroom attorney for 30 years.
He also self-published his autobiography, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung,” titled after the accomplishment of learning how to breathe independently for at least three minutes – a feat that took him a year to master and was rewarded with a dog, according to the book
In his interview with CNN in 2022, Paul said that he was working on a second book. He demonstrated his writing process, using a pen attached to a plastic stick held in his mouth to tap keys on a keyboard.
“I’ve got some big dreams. I’m not going to accept from anybody their limitations,” he said in the interview. “My life is incredible.
In January, he set up a “Polio Paul” TikTok account, where he described his life accomplishments and answered questions about life in an iron lung like “How do you go to the bathroom?” and “How do you stay so positive?” At the time of his death, he had 300,000 followers and more than 4.5 million likes.
Paul was also an advocate for polio vaccination. In his first TikTok video, he said, “The millions of children not protected against polio. They have to be before there’s another epidemic.
Mr. Alexander is survived by his brother, his nephew Benjamin Alexander, his niece Jennifer Dodson and his sister-in-law Rafaela Alexander, according to Dignity Memorial. His funeral service is scheduled for March 20 at the Grove Hill Funeral Home & Memorial Park in Dallas.
Before his death, in a video posted on TikTok on Jan. 31, Mr. Alexander said that he had been surprised and moved by the response to his videos.
“It makes me feel like there’s somebody that really cares about me,” he said. “I wish I could hug every one of you.”
過去70年的大部分時間都在鐵肺裡度過，卻成為律師、作家和抖音明星的男人去世，享年78歲
保羅·亞歷山大 (Paul Alexander) 6 歲時因小兒麻痺症癱瘓，一生大部分時間都靠著黃色鐵肺維持生命，78 歲時去世，他取得的成就對於他這樣的人來說是難以想像的。 他的兄弟菲利普·亞歷山大週一分享了這一消息。
保羅·亞歷山大 (Paul Alexander) 過去 70 年的大部分時間都在鐵肺裡度過，他獲得了法律學位，寫了一本書，並在晚年在 TikTok 上建立了一批追隨者。
診斷後他預計無法生存，即使他克服了這些困難，他的生活也主要受到一台無法移動的機器的限制。
週二，GoFundMe 頁面宣布了他的去世消息，該頁面旨在幫助支付他的住房和醫療費用。
「閱讀所有評論並知道這麼多人受到保羅的啟發，這絕對令人難以置信。 我非常感激，」菲利普在 GoFundMe 頁面上說道。
保羅的確切死因尚不清楚。 菲利普說，三週前他因感染 Covid-19 入院，但本週檢測結果不再呈陽性。
「保羅，我們會想念你，但會永遠記得你。 感謝您與我們分享您的故事，」GoFundMe 籌款活動的組織者 Christopher Ulmer 在頁面上說道。
1952 年夏天，6 歲的保羅患上了小兒麻痺症。當時正值小兒麻痺症流行的高峰期。 據美國疾病管制與預防中心稱，當年美國記錄了超過 21,000 例麻痺性小兒麻痺病例。
據美國疾病管制與預防中心 (CDC) 稱，如今，由於 20 世紀 50 年代末期開發的疫苗，小兒麻痺在美國已被消滅。
這種疾病使保羅頸部以下癱瘓，無法自主呼吸。 根據他的自傳，他被安置在一個鐵肺中，這是一個巨大的金屬圓筒，可以改變氣壓以刺激呼吸。
「醫生告訴我們保羅不可能活了，」保羅的母親多麗絲·亞歷山大在他的自傳中說。
「有幾次電源故障，然後必須用手泵肺。 我們的鄰居會跑過來幫我們抽水。”
保羅在鐵肺裡度過了接下來的七十年。 2023年3月，他被金氏世界紀錄宣佈為全球存活時間最長的鐵肺患者。
保羅的野心並不受他的條件限制。 他學會了呼吸技巧，使他能夠一次離開鐵肺幾個小時。 他大學畢業，獲得法律學位，並繼續擔任法庭律師 30 年。
他還自行出版了自傳《狗的三分鐘：我在鐵肺中的生活》，以學習如何獨立呼吸至少三分鐘的成就為標題——這一壯舉他花了一年的時間才掌握，並被根據書中的說法，獎勵是一隻狗
2022 年，保羅在接受 CNN 採訪時表示，他正在寫第二本書。 他展示了他的寫作過程，用嘴裡的一根塑膠棒上的筆敲擊鍵盤上的按鍵。
「我有一些遠大的夢想。 我不會接受任何人的局限性，」他在採訪中說道。 “我的生活令人難以置信。
一月份，他建立了一個“Polio Paul”TikTok 帳戶，在該帳戶中他描述了自己的人生成就，並回答了有關鐵肺生活的問題，例如“你怎麼去洗手間？” 以及“你如何保持如此積極的態度？” 在他去世時，他擁有30萬粉絲和超過450萬個讚。
保羅也是小兒麻痺疫苗接種的倡導者。 他在他的第一個 TikTok 影片中說，「數百萬兒童沒有受到小兒麻痺的保護。 它們必須在另一次流行病爆發之前出現。
據尊嚴紀念碑稱，亞歷山大先生身後留下了他的兄弟、侄子本傑明·亞歷山大、侄女詹妮弗·多德森和嫂子拉斐拉·亞歷山大。 他的葬禮定於 3 月 20 日在達拉斯格羅夫山殯儀館和紀念公園舉行。
在亞歷山大先生去世前，在 1 月 31 日發佈在 TikTok 上的一段影片中表示，他的影片得到的反響讓他感到驚訝和感動。
“這讓我感覺到有人真正關心我，”他說。 “我希望能夠擁抱你們每一個人。”
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