The man in the iron lung: How Paul Alexander lived life to the full - BBC News

He spent 72 years using an iron lung machine to breathe after surviving polio as a child.

14 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Philip AlexanderImage caption, Philip Alexander with his brother Paul, in his iron lung machineBy Catherine SnowdonBBC NewsPaul Alexander was six years old when he woke, terrified, to find himself inside a large metal tube, with only his head sticking out.

He couldn't move to feel what was trapping him, and when he tried to call for help, he discovered he couldn't make a sound.

Paul had survived a serious bout of polio, but had been left quadriplegic. After an emergency tracheostomy operation, he was unable to breathe without the iron lung machine that now encased his small body.

When he died recently at the age of 78, Paul had spent more than seven decades using his iron lung, longer than anyone else in history.

Image source, GoFundMeBut what was it that marked him out from so many of his peers, and kept him going?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68627630

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