What Life Was Like Trapped Inside an Iron Lung

It will save your life, but you will be trapped inside for as along as you live. Check out today's new video that looks into the life saving device called the "Iron lung" and how it can help people who can't breath on their own, get oxygen in their lungs, but it comes at a cost.

🔖 MY SOCIAL PAGES

💭 Find more interesting stuff on:

All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted.

[sheldonaubut]

I got Polio at the age of 3, in 1953, and was completely paralyzed for the first 6 months, including my lungs. I was in an iron lung for those months, and sadly my earliest memory is looking up at the face of that monster. At 6 months in there the paralysis went away in my left side which developed normally but my right leg, shoulder, arm and lung never recovered completely. Spent most of my childhood with surgery after surgery, that allowed me to walk again, but on crutches or wheelchairs all through my teens. Cumulatively, I've spent over 6 total years in hospitals. But, I don't regret Polio, as being handicapped spurred me to excel at what I could do. I've raced cars, motorcycles and snowmobiles. Couldn't play stick and ball sports, so gravitated towards anything mechanical, and growing up in the days when hospitals didn't have televisions in the rooms I read every book in their libraries, even the dictionary and the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Went on to having a great career, rising to the Director of Transportation for 35 division of one of the largest companies on the planet. I've acted on stage, done hundreds of TV and radio commercials and even have a couple of movie credits. And that is just the tip of the iceberg in what I've done in my life. I have a wonderful wife, two grown, wonderful sons, two step-children, and a dozen grandkids and step-grandkids. Polio pushed me to excel, so not a bad thing.

[Theesocialscene]

R.I.P Paul Alexander 1946 - 70 years living inside an iron lung

[MelaninCosplay]

I'm not in the medical field, but I've heard about Iron Lungs. I can't imagine how some people had to live inside those things for the rest of their lives.

[xx_pixelartmaster_xx]

I'm here after Paul Alexander passed away
R.I.P. Paul Alexander ❤ 🙏

[x-megapenultimate]

For those that want to know more about Paul he wrote a book and was a lawyer for many decades all while inside the iron lung

[Ed_Stuckey]

I remember receiving the vaccine in 50s. Everyone in school went to the local small-town hospital and lined up to receive an injection. We also were given a dosed sugar cube with the oral vaccine but I don't recall whether it was a year or so before the injection or a year or so after. Anyway, it was of enough concern that we got both!

[cindybubbles]

RIP Paul Alexander. I can't believe this showed up in my feed a few days after I found out about his passing.

[LierinLindquist]

There was a man who still lived in his Iron lung up until a few years ago when he passed away. They did several documentaries on him and it was so heartbreaking to see someone living their entire life with only their head free to the air and world, their whole entire body stuck in the same one position in this one machine until you take your last breath.

[ChaseTerrier]

For me, living in an Iron Lung for the rest of your life sounds worse than death itself.

[dragondude]

Darth Vader's suit is basically an iron lung and apparently it was not only painful to wear, but very heavy and uncomfortable with constant itching, sweating, rubbing against his burnt skin causing sores, and the mechanical breathing grating on his nerves.

[janinetapp]

Watching this on the 13th March, 2024 just after I heard Paul had passed due to complications of Covid 😭
RIP Paul, you lived a life that I couldn’t even imagine, you achieved so much and always had such a positive attitude, you are now free 🕊️

[nooberthegoober]

I remember hearing stuff about iron lungs, and my favourite story about it was with Paul Alexander, the man in the iron lung as they call him.

[SciMinute]

Remembering Paul Alexander (1946 - 2024): Seventy years of resilience within an iron lung.. Rest in peace.

[Aidanthewatermelon]

I learned about this from our class, where we learned about diseases. We went around asking people if they would rather be confined to an iron lung for the rest of their life, or just die

[adrianwong]

My grandpa had Polio, thankfully he wasn’t put in an iron lung cause his mom saved him, but this is important to learn about, especially for the younger generation

[USArmyVet]

Scary nickname, brilliant invention. Awesome narration, thank you. 💯

[Itriedtakennames]

For everyone who was sad or annoyed that COVID hit their high school or college years, that’s valid, but my Depression era dad remembers when his classmates could be a healthy kid on Tuesday, then get cold symptoms, in the hospital on Saturday, then if they were lucky, be gone weeks before returning with significant and lifelong mobility issues.

Pandemics and new infectious diseases happen pretty regularly, and AIDS was universally fatal and deeply feared for many years.

[leas]

My mom's boss had had polio when she was a child. It made her partly paralysed for rest of her life and she had to spent long time in an iron lung. I was small when saw her for the first time and I was told that I asked "Why that woman is so slow?" I was told why and as a child I accepted that. Only very much later learned why she was ill. Polio is terrible illness, we must do everything we can to avoid that, luckily nowadays we have vaccination.

[anthonyarcanumsanctumregnu]

Id rather be dead then live in one of these in my opinion if I can't breath on my own I'm already dead anyway.

[smittykins]

My grandmother spent time in an iron lung. She was eventually able to get out, but was dependent on a wheelchair or crutches for the rest of her life.