He ran inside and his mother gasped when she saw him.
“God, please, no,” she said. Paul’s face was flushed with fever and she went cold with fear.
“She knew right away I had polio,” Paul, who lived in Dallas, Texas, recalled.
The devastating disease was rampant in the US, affecting at least 60 000 people – most of them children – that year alone.
Polio causes flu-like symptoms and the virus can attack the spinal cord or brain, causing paralysis and sometimes death.
Paul deteriorated fast and his parents took him to hospital. When he woke up he was unable to talk or move.
“I thought I was dead,” he said. Doctors had performed a tracheotomy to clear his chest of mucous and put him in an iron lung – an enormous sealed metal tank that stimulates breathing by varying air pressure to compress and depress the chest.
The contraption would be his “home” for the next 72 years – seven decades in which he grabbed life by the horns, worked as a lawyer, wrote his memoir and became a TikTok star.
Paul (78) died recently after contracting Covid and will go down in history as the person to live in an iron lung the longest.
His doctors hadn’t expected him to survive more than a year or two – he was paralysed from the neck down and he couldn’t breathe on his own.
But Paul defied the odds and became a worldwide inspiration.
“Life was a combination of one adventure, miracle – call it whatever you want to call it – after another,” he said.
ãã®èšäºã¯ YOU South Africa ã® 28 March 2024 çã«æ²èŒãããŠããŸãã
7 æ¥éã® Magzter GOLD ç¡æãã©ã€ã¢ã«ãéå§ããŠãäœåãã®å³éžããããã¬ãã¢ã ã¹ããŒãªãŒã9,000 以äžã®éèªãæ°èã«ã¢ã¯ã»ã¹ããŠãã ããã
ãã§ã«è³Œèªè ã§ã ?  ãµã€ã³ã€ã³
ãã®èšäºã¯ YOU South Africa ã® 28 March 2024 çã«æ²èŒãããŠããŸãã
7 æ¥éã® Magzter GOLD ç¡æãã©ã€ã¢ã«ãéå§ããŠãäœåãã®å³éžããããã¬ãã¢ã ã¹ããŒãªãŒã9,000 以äžã®éèªãæ°èã«ã¢ã¯ã»ã¹ããŠãã ããã
ãã§ã«è³Œèªè ã§ã? ãµã€ã³ã€ã³
BALLON IN THE BAG
Manchester City midfielder Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante says his Ballon d'Or win is a victory for Spanish football
IT WAS ALL A LIE
A new doccie exposes the Grey's Anatomy writer who fabricated her life story
'I WILL NEVER GIVE UP'
After her husband, anticorruption activist Alexei Navalny, was poisoned and murdered by the Kremlin, she became the public face of Russia's opposition. In this candid interview Yulia Navalnaya opens up about life on the run, her perilous family life and why she's continuing her husband's fight to save their country
AGREE TO DISAGREE
Trevor Noah on how his childhood squabbles with his mother inspired his delightful new book
PAUSE THE CLOCK
Researchers have discovered that the ageing process spikes at 44 and 60. Here's what you can do to slow it down
MPOOMY ON TOP
We chat to SA's most popular female podcaster about love, loss and her booming success
MY BROTHER IS NOT TO BLAME
Tinus Drotské says his sibling, ex Bok NÇka, is the victim in the brawl with a neighbour that landed up in court
MATT THE RECLUSE
A year after his friend's tragic death, the actor continues to shun the spotlight
A LEAP OF FAITH
After her husband tried to kill her by tampering with her parachute she thought she'd never trust a man again-but now she's found love
THEY'RE MY KIDS!
This West Coast woman treats her monkeys as iftheyre humans and animal activists are not happy about it