Paul Alexander
The “Man with the Iron Lung” is dead
Paul Alexander has died at the age of 78. photo
© Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/AP/dpa
Lawyer, Tiktoker and record holder in the Guinness Book – Paul Alexander was all of that. Now the man who was dependent on an iron lung for more than 70 years of his life has died.
The “Iron Lung” was part of him almost his entire life and yet he didn’t let it stop him – the American Paul Alexander lived on a ventilator for more than seventy years after a polio infection. He has now died at the age of 78, as his brother Philip Alexander confirmed according to reports from the US television network CBS.
“The night before he died, he just opened his eyes, looked at me and said, ‘This is perfect,'” Philip Alexander said. The station reported that Paul Alexander was infected with Corona and that the virus ultimately claimed his life.
According to a BBC report, Alexander was dependent on the iron lung because of polio at the age of six. This meant that he could no longer breathe on his own. That’s why from then on his body was surrounded up to the neck with a metal cylinder, which helped his lungs to breathe.
Work as a lawyer
Only after years did Alexander learn to breathe partially independently, so that he was able to leave the iron lung for short periods of time, the BBC reported. Despite all the restrictions, he managed to finish school and work as a lawyer after studying law. In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, he said: “I knew if I wanted to do anything with my life, it had to be a mental thing.”
According to CBS television, the Guinness Book of Records declared Alexander the longest-living iron lung patient in history in March 2024. His brother Philip Alexander told CBS: “If he hadn’t had really strong, positive parents, he never would have made it. If he hadn’t had family and close relationships all these years, he never would have made it.”
Tiktok star
At the same time, he also shared the challenges of his life on social media, CBS reported. He said in a Tiktok video: “I love the sun, but I haven’t felt it for a long time. It’s lonely.” Alexander published his memoirs in 2020.
Polio is a contagious infectious disease that can cause permanent paralysis and death, especially in small children. The virus is often spread through contaminated water. There is currently no cure.
Before vaccinations were introduced, there were thousands of sick people and hundreds of deaths every year in Germany alone. The global vaccination campaigns initiated in 1988 have so far saved around 20 million people from paralysis and one and a half million from death, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). However, vaccination rates are now far too low in many places. In Germany, babies from two months of age are vaccinated; the national average vaccination rate is around 90 percent.