North Texan one of 10 still living in iron lung
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In this Aug. 9, 2014 photo, Paul Alexander uses a plastic stick with a pencil tied to it to type on a keyboard using only his mouth while in his iron lung at his home in Dallas. Alexander is one ... more >
By SHELLY CONLON
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Associated Press
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Sunday, August 24, 2014
DALLAS (AP) - As a tow-headed 6-year-old, Paul Alexander took apart everything, including his mother’s blender, simply to understand how it worked. His father would be close behind, putting the pieces back together.
Alexander didn’t know at that time there would be a day he wouldn’t be able to take things apart, wouldn’t be able to run around in the mud, or do other rambunctious activities the average 6-year-old could do. Paralytic polio would place him in an iron lung, a machine that forces air into his lungs with help from a pressurized system, about a week after he had checked into a Dallas hospital in 1952 and shortly after he was prematurely pronounced dead.