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Living Inside a Canister: Dallas Polio Survivor is One of Few People Left in U.S. Using Iron Lung

The machine is what people see first.  The submarine-like metal cylinder dominates the room, rhythmically humming and pulsating as it helps keep Paul Alexander alive.

Alexander has spent much of his life in a can, a childhood victim of a once-epidemic disease that menaced the nation and now leaves him at the mercy of a mechanical respirator. Though unable to move from the neck down, he refused to be limited by his metal prison, finding success in both the classroom and the courtroom.

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