Man who has lived inside iron lung for more than 70 years explains how he got a job without leaving machine

A man who has spent over 70 years of his life inside an iron lung has explained how he managed to get a job and do his work from inside the life-supporting machine.

Paul Alexander had to be placed inside an iron lung after contracting polio and becoming paralysed from the neck down at the age of six.

While only being able to move his head, neck and mouth, Paul has relied on an iron lung for more than 70 years now.

There have been some scary moments, such as when the power cut out and the iron lung stopped working, but he recently celebrated his 78th birthday.

The iron lung Paul relies upon to stay alive and the other treatments he needs aren't free, meaning he has to make money to cover his expenses.

While these days he's making some money as a TikTok star, during the course of his life Paul trained as a lawyer.

Having graduated second in his class from W.W. Samuell High, Texas, in 1967 (if he'd been able to do the biology lab he'd have been first) before getting a scholarship to Southern Methodist University and then transferring to University of Texas at Austin.

He got his bachelor's degree in 1978, then earned a law degree in 1984 and got a job teaching legal terms to court stenographers before passing the bar exam in 1986 and working in family law.

Explaining how he was able to become a lawyer and get his job, Paul revealed how he did it in a video on his TikTok page @ironlungman.

He said: "I was confronted by a couple of problems that turned out to be major problems, and that was I can't write. That means I can't take notes.

"And I couldn't record, cause it takes way too long to listen when you're getting ready for your exam so right off I had to decide how do I handle all of the work and the information which is massive.

"I had to study the law and read case law together because the professor was always gonna ask you about that.

"So what I did, I got my mind ready, I listened very carefully and remembered what I heard.

"That was a lot of concentration, but yet I found it to be the most effective and rewarding process amongst all of them."

When the time came to take the bar exam he wasn't able to use his iron lung so he 'frog breathed' his way through the exam, explaining that it was 'the least laborious of the options and 'they were all dreadful'.

Frog breathing, also known as glossopharyngeal breathing, is a means of getting air into the lungs which Paul taught himself as that would allow him to leave the iron lung for short periods of time.

Featured Image Credit: Tik Tok: ironlungman

Topics: Health, TikTok, US News

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker