PAUL ALEXANDER'S LEGACY: HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IRON LUNG
By- Kavya Bhatt
Paul Alexandar also known as the man in the Lung Iron, died at the age of 78 on 11th March 2024.
He had been trapped in the lung machine since 1952.
Paul managed to train himself to breathe on his own for part of the day, earn a degree and write a book on his life.
Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw invented the first lung at the Harvard School of Public Health.
It is a huge metal box with a set of bellows attached at one end to pump power air in and out.
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 its way to modern-day ventilators.
Paul Alexander was the last living person to use an iron lung.