CNN
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Paul Alexander, who spent much of the past 70 years in an iron lung and defied expectations to become a lawyer and author, died Monday afternoon at the age of 78, according to his brother Philip Alexander.
His death was announced Tuesday on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for housing and medical expenses.
“It's just incredible reading all the comments and knowing that so many people are inspired by Paul. I'm so grateful,” Phillip said on the GoFundMe page. .
Paul's exact cause of death is unknown. Philip said he was hospitalized three weeks ago with COVID-19, but no longer tested positive this week.
“Paul, we will miss you, but we will always remember you. Thank you for sharing your story with us,” GoFundMe fundraiser organizer Christopher Ulmer wrote on the page. Stated.
Paul contracted polio in the summer of 1952 at the age of six. At the time, the polio epidemic was at its peak. More than 21,000 cases of paralytic polio were recorded in the United States that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the CDC, polio is now considered eradicated in the United States thanks to a vaccine developed in the late 1950s.
The disease left Paul paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe on his own. According to his autobiography, he was placed inside an iron lung, a large metal cylinder that varied air pressure to stimulate breathing.
Paul's mother, Doris Alexander, said in her autobiography, “Doctors said Paul was unlikely to survive.” She said, “There were several times when the power went out and I had to manually pump air into my lungs. Neighbors ran over and helped me pump.”
Paul spent the next 70 years in an iron lung. In March 2023, he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's longest surviving iron lung patient.
Paul's ambition was not limited by his condition. He learned breathing techniques that allowed him to leave the iron lung for hours at a time. He graduated from university and received a law degree, and as a barrister he worked for 30 years.
He also self-published his autobiography, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung.'' The title honors his feat of learning how to breathe independently for at least three minutes, a feat that took him a year to master. According to the book, he was given a dog as a reward.
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Paul told CNN in 2022 that he was working on his second book. He demonstrated the process of writing by hitting the keys on a keyboard with a pen attached to a plastic stick held in his mouth.
“I have some big dreams. I'm not going to accept anyone's limitations,” he said in an interview. “My life is incredible.
In January, he opened the “Polio Paul” TikTok account, where he described his life's accomplishments and answered questions about life inside an iron lung, such as “How do you go to the bathroom?” and “How do you stay so positive?'' At the time of his death, he had over 300,000 followers and 4.5 million likes.
Paul was also a supporter of polio vaccination. In his first TikTok video, he said, “Millions of children are unprotected from polio. We must do so before another infectious disease outbreak occurs.”
