This Man Spent 71 Years in this Iron Lung

this guy has lived in this metal box for 71 years he cannot move so he eats like this he reads like this he types like this and this machine is the only thing keeping him alive who is he why is he living in this machine and how did he become godamn lawyer let me tell you his insane true story in the US we found Paul hi am Paul Richard Alexander that I'm the man of the AR love when Paul was just 6 years old he was running outside playing with his friends just like normal kid but then he started to feel sick start feeling bad and wa up and said Mom don't feel good mom turned around and looked at me and she said please God not myself soon he was in the hospital with other kids who all got the same disease polio there were many years of struggle and there were lots of children for myself did God why all these kids die and I'm not polio mostly affects children and it can paralyze the entire body sadly this is what happened to Paul couldn't sit up in the bed the next day couldn't move my hands with my fingers by the end of the week very trouble breathing yes Paul's muscles stopped working his lungs stopped breathing and doctors had no choice but to put him inside this machine the iron yes is an IR they can see their within days Paul went from being kid running outside to kid locked up in this iron lung it wasn't that was locked up it was to keep me alive nobody thought he would be able to breathe without it until this happened my caretaker told me that you could IU could breathe for 3 minutes on my own out of the lung he would give be pu so he tried every day his mom turned off the and he tried learning how to breathe again he did this for weeks and weeks and weeks until finally he could do it remember that day the day could breathe for 3 minutes pupp after that he taught himself how to breathe without the iron lung for many hours can breathe for many hours without the IR lung it's called frog breathing yeah there's the machine you can see the machine have stopped working for him you can see how he gaps in is tching cou of air and swallowing that air down into your lung learning how to breathe opened up the world to him he left his lung sat in wheelchair and saw the world when finally learned to bre out of the lung my own was in stoppable went everywhere in my wheelchair went on many airplanes stayed in cotel even traveled to Mexico when went to Mexico had my iron blood delivered there he would spend whole day without his lung and at night he would go back into it and it doesn't stop there he went to two universities and got two degrees he lived with his long in dorm room and went to class in wheelchair live with of fraternity that they took took care of me he even became lawyer and went to court to fight cases God was damn good lawyer would fight cases for people in court all day long Paul has been facing challenges every day ever since he got polio but he doesn't let it stop him every day he wakes up and faces the day with smile on his face am just like everyone else get up can break my teeth shave can go on with my day he even wrote book about his life with just stick in his mouth like this this is my bimw he took me 5 years sh it letter by letter it's called three minutes for dog life in the iron lung is normal for him but how does it even work well this machine is literally giant lung see we all use muscles to help us breathe so when Paul got polio his muscles stopped working and he could not breathe on his own anymore so this machine works like muscles for Paul's lungs let me show you how air is pumped like this when the air goes in his lungs are forced to fill up when the air goes out his lungs are forced to empty it's negative pressure machine it helps him to breathe this is what pushes the air in and it raises the ribs up and down Paul wears this collar around his neck to keep the air inside there's mirror for him to see what's around him these little ports are for nurses to put their hands in to help him if the power goes out Paul has big big problem but luckily he has backup plan if the electricity goes out can do use battery power Paul is one of the last people on the planet who still use this lung but why does he need this 50 old machine in the 21st century turns out it's because he needs to keep his mouth free to do everyday can keep my mouth free which is what use to write to talking phone take to make living both entire life changed when he was 6 years old because of one disease and the sad point report is the polio vaccine was invented after he caught the disease polio vaccine was not developed until after got polio you might think that polio is just thing of the past as old as this machine but it is not polio is still around today in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan because sometimes vaccines are not available and sometimes people choose not to use them that's why it's so important to get vaccines for diseases like polio you must get the vaccine they can save your life Paul is an incredible person nothing in his life has been easy not even breathing but still he traveled he went to school he became lawyer and he even wrote book have three Heroes that have contributed to my determination my mother my dad and my faith in God Paul has been locked up in this box for most of his life but that didn't stop him from doing big things because he knew an important truth the only thing that stops us from doing big things is not our health or our age or how much money we have it's our mind so if Paul can do great things while in the iron lung imagine all the great things you could do if you just opened your mind I'm with you