- On March 26, 1953, Dr. Jonas Salk announced he had tested a #polio vaccine. The rest, as they say, is history;
- ;On the topic of "Polio", today’s Rotary Foundation Minute, Gail Bradley introduced us to Paul Alexander, and a story which makes Dr. Salk's discovery ever the more miraculous.
Paul Alexander contracted polio during a major U.S. outbreak of the disease in the late 1950s when he was six years old. He almost died in the hospital before a doctor noticed he wasn't breathing and rushed him into an iron lung, an airtight metal tank that encloses all of the body except the head and uses regulated changes in air pressure to force the lungs to inhale and exhale. Alexander was among a small number of people in the world today still using an iron lung to assist his paralytic polio. The need for the 800-pound machines declined dramatically after the polio vaccine became widely available in the early 1960s.
For 10 years, Alexander never left the device or his house. But then he had a breakthrough, teaching himself to breathe on his own by forcing air into his lungs. That allowed him to get around in a wheelchair for up to eight hours.
He earned a law degree, passed the bar exam, and practiced law in Dallas for a time.
He had a computer keyboard and a touchtone phone by his head which he manipulated with a plastic stick held in his mouth. The iron lung was shipped ahead to his destination when he went on longer trips.
Paul’s father had been a Rotarian but he did not remember that. In 2015 he learned that Rotary fights to eradicate the very disease that left him almost completely paralyzed. That year he became a member of the Rotary E-Club of District 5810.
"It means so much to me to belong to this organization," Alexander said "I'm having a great time and staying awake at night thinking of ideas. So many people have come into my life. I never knew there were so many caring people out there."
Paul died on March 11.
For additional information Google "Paul Alexander"
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