On March 11, a man named Paul Alexander died at the age of 78. He held the world record for number of years living inside an iron lung. Alexander contracted polio in 1952, at the age of six. His ...

In the mid-20th century, community spaces like swimming pools and sporting events became a source of anxiety for parents who were frightened by the rampant spread of poliovirus. Their concerns weren’t ...

Confined to an iron lung after contracting polio as a child, Paul Alexander 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 ...

Before vaccines and public health triumphs, polio was the thing that kept parents up at night. During its peak from 1948 to 1955, the disease swept through towns across America, hitting children the ...

The last man to live in an iron lung died in Dallas on Monday. Paul Alexander, 78, spent more than 70 years confined to an iron lung after contracting polio as a child in 1952. Despite the challenges, ...

Alexander contracted polio in 1952, when he was 6. He became paralyzed from the neck down and he began using an iron lung to breathe. Confined to an iron lung after contracting polio as a child, Paul ...