World News @lemmy.ml Sjmarf @sh.itjust.works 8 mo. ago

Paul Alexander, the polio survivor who spent over 70 years in an Iron Lung, has died at 78

www.bbc.co.uk Paul Alexander: 'Man in the iron lung' dies at the age of 78

Paul Alexander worked as a lawyer and lived for decades in a metal cylinder which breathed for him.

66 comments

Seldom mentioned in the media is that he died from COVID-19.
- Does anyone know if he has any pre-existing conditions?
  
  (This is a joke)
  
  He was perfectly healthy, truly had lungs of iron
  
  Don't make jokes about people dying, jackass.
- Ain't that a bitch. One virus took his body. Another took his life.
  
  Both are preventable through safe, effective, and widely available vaccines. Vaccinate yourselves and your children, friends.
  
  Currently COVID-19 is not preventable through vaccination on its own, especially not at the currently recommended once-per-year schedule, because they don’t last anywhere near that long.
  
  Those are good but you also need to mask to prevent the spread of covid.
  
  The COVID vaccine doesn't prevent you from getting COVID. It just mitigates the symptoms. You can still get it and spread it.
I feel like this guy alone undercuts the whole meritocracy narrative quite a bit. I know the defenders of that worldview would go "okay, but except for all the exceptions...", but in a lot of ways it's just a more extreme version of the stuff that puts people in normal poverty.

Also, vaccinate your damn kids, everyone.
- Send this story to every anti vaxxer and ask if this is what they want their kids to suffer this.
  
  I have a wall right here if I need to bang my head against something. I don't know, maybe somebody else reading has the gift of convincing irrational people of things, but I do not.
  
  I brought it up partly just to vent, and partly for any fence sitters that might be lurking and hadn't made the connection.
  
  They’ve already decided they don’t care for the suffering of other people’s children, the step to not caring about their own isn’t a far one.
- undercuts the whole meritocracy narrative
  
  How do you mean?
  
  A classic case of success against all the odds, to manage to become a lawyer at all is a challenge let alone when you live in an iron lung. It's an argument for people saying that no matter who you are in society you can succeed and that (therefore) society isn't racist/classiest etc.
Mr Alexander was a far stronger man than I could ever be. 70 years in an iron lung? I would be begging for release within a year or two max.
- I'm guessing it's a bit easier if you start as a kid. It's just what life is like to some degree. Still, can you imagine how much FOMO you would have, literally confined to a barrel? Puberty must have been extra weird for him.
  
  Puberty must have been extra weird for him.
  
  He was paralyzed from the neck down. Puberty was probably mostly a squeaky voice and inconvenient growth spurt.
  
  Agreed on it probably being easier if it's something you're used to and not actively in pain.
  
  Not everyone gets a lot of FOMO, so I could imagine that might also not be much, though.
  
  I mean, maybe you just mean frustration/sadness that he can't do as much as other people, or to do specific things he wants to do. And I could imagine that could be just incredibly tough. Like all sorts of people with severe, debilitating conditions. But FOMO is kinda a different (more childish) thing than that.
- He apparently did regain the ability to breathe a little bit and would leave the iron lung for short periods of time
- Imagine if you find out that normal humans could breathe underwater, and there 100 billion people living underwater. Us 8 billion people unable to live underwater are the "iron lung kids".
  
  The all say "imagine not being able to 'fly' underwater, or not riding a gigantic squid - I would kill myself to end my misery!"
  
  What would you respond to that? I'd be like "eh, must be nice, but I've lived above water all my life. It makes no difference to me."
  
  IDK. I reckon the 1:8B is a bit worse
- It depends if you can fit in with a gamepad inside that puppy.
  
  Paralyzed from the neck down.
  
  Not much use a controller will do him.
This is the best summary I could come up with:

The disease left him unable to breathe independently, leading doctors to place him in the metal cylinder, where he would spend the rest of his life.

"Paul Alexander, 'The Man in the Iron Lung', passed away yesterday," a post on a fundraising website said.

His brother, Phillip Alexander, remembered him as a "welcoming, warm person", with a "big smile" that instantly put people at ease.

Phillip said he admired how self-sufficient his brother was, even as he dealt with an illness that stopped him performing daily tasks such as feeding himself.

Paul's health deteriorated in recent weeks and the brothers spent his final days together, sharing pints of ice cream.

After years, Alexander eventually learned to breathe by himself so that he was able to leave the lung for short periods of time.

The original article contains 583 words, the summary contains 133 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
The worst part is that if you're stuck in that situation and want to get out of it via suicide, you literally can't. Now he's finally free.
- He was able to leave the contraption for short periods of time. He was able to breathe on his own, but not well and would become fatigued quickly. He wasn't as stuck as it seems.
- Didn't he choose this? There are modern replacements for the iron lung, when he was still able enough to get out of it he could've switched I think.
This guy could have gone trach/vent 60 years ago and been mobile on wheelchair.
Wow, this guy should be some sort of hero!

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