Producer: Priyanka Das Editor: Manuj Yadav
Paul Alexander, also known as The Man in the Iron Lung, died at the age of 78 on March 11, 2024.
He had been trapped inside a lung machine since 1952, when he contracted polio at a tender age of six.
Paul managed to train himself to breathe on his own for part of the day, earned a law degree, wrote a book about his life, built a big following on social media and inspired people around the globe with his positive outlook.
Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw invented the first iron lung at Harvard School of Public Health.
It comprised a huge metal box with a set of bellows attached at one end to pump air in and out.
The respirator worked by pushing air into the lungs by method of artificial respiration called External Negative Pressure Ventilation (ENPV).
While mechanical breathing devices were common, it was the epidemic of polio that necessitated the 'iron lung'.
Most patients only used the iron lung for a few weeks or months depending on the severity of the polio attack.
After the invention of the polio vaccine, the iron lung gradually made way to modern-day ventilators.
Paul Alexander was the last living person to use an iron lung.