Paul Richard Alexander Biography (January 30, 1946 – March 11, 2024) was an American lawyer and paralytic polio survivor. He was the last man living in an iron lung. He contracted polio in 1952 at the age of six. Alexander earned a bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctor at the University of Texas at Austin. He self-published a memoir in 2020.
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Paul Alexander
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| Born |
Paul Richard Alexander
January 30, 1946 Dallas, Texas, U.S.
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| Died | March 11, 2024 (aged 78) |
| Education | Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Austin |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Alexander contracted polio at the age of six and was paralyzed for life, only able to move his head, neck, and mouth.
During a major U.S. outbreak of polio in the early 1950s, hundreds of children around Dallas, Texas, including Alexander, were taken to Parkland Hospital. There, children were treated in a ward of iron lungs. He almost died in the hospital before a doctor noticed he was not breathing and rushed him into an iron lung.
He spent 18 months in hospital, before going home. He was paralyzed from the neck down. His parents rented a portable generator and a truck to bring him and his iron lung home. Beginning in 1954, with help from the March of Dimes and a physical therapist named Mrs. Sullivan, Alexander taught himself glossopharyngeal breathing which allowed him to leave the iron lung for gradually increasing periods of time.
Alexander was one of Dallas Independent School District’s first homeschooled students. He learned to memorize instead of taking notes. At 21, he graduated second in his class from W.W. Samuell High in 1967, becoming the first person to graduate from a Dallas high school without physically attending a class.
Alexander received a scholarship to Southern Methodist University. He transferred to University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1978, then a Juris Doctor in 1984. Before he was admitted to the bar in 1986, he was employed as an instructor of legal terminology to court stenographers at an Austin trade school. He represented clients in court in a three-piece suit and a modified wheelchair that held his body upright.
Alexander has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the person who has spent the longest amount of time living in an iron lung.
Alexander died from a COVID-19 infection on March 11, 2024, at the age of 78. He was one of the last two people still using the technology, alongside Martha Lillard, who first entered an iron lung in 1953.
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