POLIO PAUL
Paul was born in Dallas, Texas. His father, Gus, was a child of Greek immigrants to the USA, and his mother, Doris Emmett, was of Lebanese descent. He had a younger brother called Philip. His family worshipped at a Greek Orthodox Church.
In the early 1950s, a polio epidemic swept through the USA. Hundreds of children were infected. Paul contracted the disease when he was aged just six years old.
He was rushed to Parkland Hospital in Dallas along with many other children.
Whilst awaiting treatment, a passing doctor noticed that Paul had stopped breathing. His life was saved in the nick of time with an emergency tracheostomy.
However, it rendered Paul quadriplegic. He was paralised from the neck down. Paul continued to struggle to breathe, so he was placed in an ‘iron lung’ (invented by John Haven Emerson in 1948).
This machine helps a patient breath by taking air out of the cylinder that the patient rests in. It creates a vacuum, forcing the lungs to take in air. When the air is let back in, the lungs deflate.
Paul was in hospital for 18 months in a ward with many other patients also in iron lungs.
The doctors told Paul’s parents that he would never improve. They decided to discharge him from hospital,, against medical advice.
They rented a truck and hired a portable generator to provide constant power to the iron lung.
Paul was terrified when he got home. His father bribed him. Brother Philip remembered, “Paul was scared of course, of choking to death. They (his parents) told him, ‘If you last three minutes, you’ll get that dog that you want.” The puppy was his.
The biggest fear was a power cut. Gus (his Dad) kept a pair of bellows close by and used them when necessary. Neighbours would also take turns in pumping when needed.
Gus also designed a bell that Paul could ring with his teeth if he was in trouble and needed assistance.
The family were also helped by the ‘March of Dimes’, which had been founded in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a victim of polio.
It was a non-profit organization, specifically designed to help mothers and children.
March of Dimes paid for a physical therapist called Mrs Sullivan. She taught Paul the ‘glossopharyngeal breathing technique’ to help him use his lungs more efficiently. He termed it ‘frog breathing’.
In time, it meant he could have short spells outside of the iron lung.
Gradually, Paul’s strength and confidence grew. He was able to go out into the neighbourhood to play with his friends, as long as he used a wheelchair. If he got tired, Paul would have to come back inside and go into the iron lung again.
Philip said, “He was just a normal brother to me. We fought, we played, we loved, we partied, we went to concerts together – he was just a normal brother.”
His parents were determined that Paul would have a good education. He became the first Dallas home schooled student.
Paul couldn’t take notes, so he trained himself in improving his memory.
Paul finally graduated from High School aged 21, despite never having attended a single class (the first person ever to do such a thing in Texas).
He got a scholarship to study law at the Southern Methodist University, but quickly transferred to the University of Texas in Austin.
His parents helped him move in, but after that, he was pretty much on his own.
Paul hired a carer – who never turned up, so he had to learn to manage on his own. “He didn’t really have any caregivers. He was in the dorm and different people just took care of him accidentally. They pushed him around campus in his wheelchair.”
Paul got his BA in Law, followed by his Doctorate, and was admitted to the bar in 1986. He became an instructor in legal terminology, training court stenographers, but also practiced law in downtown Dallas.
His nickname was always ‘Polio Paul’.
He kept an iron lung in his office. It would startle clients when they initially came to see him. “It’s not an easy thing to see, just a head sticking out. People immediately go into shock. I saw that happen a lot.”
One client asked Paul what it did? The reply was, “It breathes for me.”
When Paul appeared in court, he always wore a sharp 3-piece suit and was in a modified wheelchair that would hold him upright.
Paul lived alone and managed most things – but needed help with feeding and shaving. His partner was Kathy Gaines, and she became his primary carer. His brother, Philip, was the back up. “He had a lot of wonderful friends, some really beautiful people in his life.”
In 2015, there was a major crisis when his iron lung started leaking. It needed making air-tight again, but because it was such old technology and there were few working models left in the world, finding somebody able to fix it was a real challenge. It became a race against time.
Social media was used. Messages of support came in from around the world, but they couldn’t get to him in time.
Help was closer to home.
Ten miles from Dallas was an environmental testing laboratory, owned by Brady Richards. He tested mechanical durability of metals and machines. He was also a collector of old pieces of technology.
One of Paul’s carers heard about Brady and went to visit him, asking if he could help. Amazingly, he had two old iron lungs (no longer working) in his basement.
Brady said, “I didn’t have any idea about Paul at the time.”
Brady visited Paul and declared his iron lung well and truly broken. So he rebuilt one of the two in the basement, using working parts from Paul’s lung and also the other one in storage. “It’s a simple machine so I managed to work it out.”
Brady refused to take any payment – instead he took Paul’s old broken lung as a swap for the newly reconditioned one.
A few days later, Paul’s carer phoned Brady and said the new machine was not working properly. Brady went straight round to Paul’s apartment.
The neck collar had broken loose. Paul was in the iron lung, trying to breathe, so Brady had to work around him. “Paul kept saying ‘I’m fine, I’m ok’ as we worked to correct the problem. The truth was that he was turning blue.” Paul survived – and became close friends with Brady Richards.
Paul used to call the lung, his ‘old iron horse’.
He was absolutely devastated when his partner and carer, Kathy Gaines, died. They had been together for 35 years.
His ambition was to help eradicate polio worldwide. He considered himself unlucky in that he had caught the disease just before Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine in 1954.
In 2020, Paul decided to write his autobiography. He typed it himself, using a pencil attached to a plastic stick, which was in his mouth, and he could tap down onto a computer keyboard.
The book was entitled ‘Three Minutes for a Dog’. It received world-wide acclaim and was considered an inspiration to other sufferers.
That same year, came the Covid pandemic. Paul was genuinely terrified. He said it was living through the polio outbreak all over again.
Paul had a GoFund me page, which helped make his life more manageable (and ultimately paid for his funeral). His brother said, “It allowed him to live his last few years stress-free.”
In January 2024, Paul started his own Tik Tok account. Two months later, he had 330,000 followers.
However, his health began to deteriorate. He was eating ice cream with Philip when he died. His brother said, “It was an honour to be with him in his last few moments.”
Philip praised Paul – “His personality had a lot to do with how much he was admired. He had that great big smile and he was such a welcoming, warm person. He made people comfortable…He was an incredible role model.”
Philip went on to say that his parents deserved a lot of credit for enabling Paul to live such a fulfilled life. “They believed in him. They gave him so much strength and love.”
This view was supported by Paul’s doctor. He commented that the iron lung was cutting edge technology at the time that Paul contracted polio. He said even many of the doctors and nurses at the time were not comfortable in dealing with such complex needs and yet Paul’s parents were willing to act as engineers, doctors and nurses for him.
Brady Richards said of Paul, “It was always a pleasure to be around him. He had a very upbeat and positive attitude.”
Philip said, “I saw him go through a lot of struggles in his life. I’m going to miss him a lot.”
Paul’s ashes have been buried with those of Kathy’s.
RIP – Rescuing Iron Paul
