These are short stories, about the TRUTHS to this terrible disease.  
We welcome the full stories from Polio Survivors all over the US and Abroad.

Alan

    Alan was 3 when he got polio. Mostly paralyzed from the waist down, he was transported to Miami Children’s Hospital.  He remembers being in a small dark room while he battled the fever, struggling for his life. Later he remembers lying on a gurney next to an iron lung.  Although never in one himself, it was a very scary.  After months in the hospital, the little boy left with crutches and braces.   He has always required crutches and a brace and now, a wheelchair. 
    Alan fell in love with the theatre, eventually found himself in California and discovered that actors with disabilities rarely got many jobs. He became a social activist and started advocating for the entertainment industry to create characters, storylines, and images that would depict people with disabilities in a more positive light. 
    Alan’s disability did not stop him from being able to act in both television and movies and has played a wide assortment of characters - including polio survivor FDR.
     Alan’s life changed forever when he had polio. Even so, he is thriving in his acceptance of his disability and living his life filled with love for his family and in serving others.
​

Arlene

     Arlene was eight when she was taken alone into a dark room where a spinal tap was given to the young, frightened child. It was polio. The little girl couldn't even sit up. For fear of exposure to the virus, the ambulance would not take Arlene and another little girl to the hospital. Because the other little girl’s parents owned a funeral home, they were taken to the hospital in a hearse.

Bonnie (Left)

    Bonnie was only two.  One minute she was walking and the next she was not.  It was Polio.  That summer, New York City was in the midst of a surge in polio cases, nearly half of them resulting in its patients being paralyzed and even dying.  At one point she was hospitalized for 6 months, and relied on consistent physical therapy sessions to keep mobile. When she was 12, she had surgery on her left leg but there were complications, leaving her with two semi-functional legs as a result.  Bonnie and her family stayed positive.
     “People who had polio in their chests were much worse off than I was because they had to be in iron lungs. I was lucky . . ”.   At age 22 she started a 45-year journey as an International Public Health advisor that would take her around the world.
     Then came post-polio syndrome and forced retirement.  Her newly acquired leg braces are giving her a lot more stability and making it easier for her to get around. “During your life there’s only so much you can do to make them (muscles) stronger.  You can exercise a little bit, but unlike most people where they say use it or lose it, that doesn’t apply to people who have polio. You can exercise too much and then you will lose it! "
​

Carol

     Carol was only two when she had the "summer flu“.  She got better on her own, no doctor was ever called.  As she aged, she was weary from stumbling and falling and of being in pain all the time. In her mid 30’s, she had a bad fall that required surgery and had what was a significant and “unusual” reaction to the anesthesia.  That reaction began a ten year process of discovery.  During her third painful EMG, she learned that it wasn't just the flu. Carol was diagnosed as having the damage to her neurons that proved the existence of an “old” polio. 
     Even when he saw her braced and dependent on a cane, her father died never having said the word Polio.  Finally, at 90 years of age, her mother revealed that deep down, they always knew it was polio.  All those years, they pretended it wasn't true and blamed themselves.
     As a result of Post-Polio Syndrome, Carol is now permanently disabled from a “mild” or “inapparent” case of the poliovirus.  

Charlotte

     Charlotte, ill at age nine, was diagnosed with Rheumatic fever.  Two days later her legs were completely paralyzed.  ​It was polio. 
     Months later,  she got hungry, and her Mom wasn't there.  She prayed:  “Please God, just let me get to the kitchen cabinet for crackers”.  She picked herself up from the sofa and holding on to all the furniture on the way, she walked out to those crackers.  That’s as far as she got.  Her legs folded and down she went.  So the little girl prayed again.  “Lord, please get me back to the sofa so I can eat my crackers.”  It worked.  She pushed herself up to the cabinet using the kitchen chair and got back to the sofa the same way.  That night, she surprised her mother while she was cooking dinner by walking to the table herself. ​

Dan

    Dan was five when he became ill with polio.  “I remember my father carrying me into the hospital and then my parents leaving me standing alone in my bed crying. Because of isolation they were not allowed to visit and could only look at me through the window of the door.”
     He was left with a very weak right leg and torso muscles. He needed to learn to walk again.  Due to the weakness in his torso, Dan developed scoliosis. They tried braces and exercises, none of which worked.  Six years later, his parents agreed to a spinal fusion for their son.  After 6 weeks in the hospital, the doctor took bone from his left leg and fused the thoracic spine.  He went home in the body cast to allow the bones to fuse – and stayed in it for almost a year.  “I missed fifth grade lying on a hospital bed in our living room.”  
     As he aged, Dan’s post-polio problems became pronounced.  For more than 20 years, he required a bi-pap and eventually a ventilator with  supplemental oxygen for sleep.

Deb

       Deb was completely paralyzed on her right side at age five. The local clinic was full. After a spinal tap, her parents were told to take her to a hospital 100 miles away. They left their frightened, paralyzed little girl with strangers and were told they could only see her on weekends. For the first four weeks (while she was quarantined) they drove 200 miles round trip so they could wave to her through a window from the parking lot. Once she was out of quarantine, they made the same weekly drive for five more months, to visit their permanently paralyzed little girl.

Diane

     Shortly before her ninth birthday,  Diane had trouble getting her shoes on. "That night, the pain engulfed my whole body and my mother was in a state of panic.  It was World War II.  My father was gone.  My mother was alone with four children.  My Grandfather took me to the hospital. One word from that day is very clear.  POLIO."  The neighbors withdrew because of “fear”.  Her father was restricted to his base because of “fear”.   
     She was taken by ambulance, far from her home, to a hospital for crippled children.  While in isolation, the little girl discovered that "the pit of fear has no bottom".  "I was never so alone in my life.  I wanted desperately to be hugged, but the nurses seemed afraid to touch us".  They did what was necessary.
      For 6 months in rehabilitation "I was no longer alone and knew God was with me".  She went home, unprepared for how the “outside” world would accept her.  "My disabled body was always in full view."  Her mother walked her to school in a stroller arriving before the other children.
      "I married and had a good life.  I will always have two legs that do not match.  Now, I am living with Post-Polio Syndrome.  My weak leg is weaker and there is more pain, but I am not alone."  Diane will not be defined by this horrific disease called polio. 

Harry

Harry had polio when he was 2.  The number of cases in Philadelphia that summer was the highest in history. He remembers lying in a hospital bed, his parents allowed only brief visits, and their waving goodbye when their visits had to end. For a month, he shared a room with as many as four other children who referred to him as a “dumb bell”.
   Once home, wearing a brace only a little less than half his weight, he was visited weekly by a physical therapist who put him thru a rigorous exercise program.  With the brace removed, the therapist had him do leg pumps on the dining room table, trying to restore some muscle mass in his atrophied right calf.  With the brace back on, the therapist would guide him along a seam in their living room rug trying to maintain balance while walking a straight line.  In between visits, his mother would do the same. Two years later, the brace came off. There was never time for self-pity. 
   Harry admires his parents and wish he had gotten the chance to hear them describe what it was like for them. He never heard either of them say “You can’t do that” or “Why don’t you try something else” whenever he wanted to play ball with neighborhood friends. Their son had survived polio. The family had scars and they had fears, but they overcame each and every one in a silent demonstration of hope, trust and love.

Janice

        Janice was born just one minute after her twin brother. "Frankie was my protector. We were healthy, rambunctious kids who had an innocent, idyllic childhood . . . until polio hit. We were only 6 when he died. I was admitted to the same hospital on the night he was buried."
    "Frankie died and two of my friends died. I was paralyzed and am grateful to have survived. Our parents abided by every single public health recommendation to try and protect us and yet, when a virus wants to hit, it’s going to hit, wherever and however it wants to."
    "Many of us have really bad memories, not just of polio, but of how awful it was to have scabs in our head and all over our bodies from chickenpox. Those bad memories are the reason we are very, very thankful we have so many vaccines today."

Jean

     Jean was two.  One hot summer day, her mother took her  swimming.    
     A few days later, all of the 19 children who swam at the pool that day began to get sick - very sick.   Jean had significant weakness on the entire right side of her body.  All 19 had contracted the dreaded  disease - Polio.  17 of those children died.  Only Jean and another boy survived. 
     Disabled her entire life,  Jean was determined not to be a victim and stay resilient.  In her early 50's, she visited a rehabilitative physician, who told her it was likely that her symptoms of post-polio syndrome were going to increase in intensity.  
     Unfortunately his prediction was correct and some of her falls resulted in significant injuries.  

Jim

          Jim was completely paralyzed from the neck down at age two. The hospital was "overwhelmed" with polio patients. His parents were told to take him home, live in quarantine and do the best they could. His little brother (an infant) was quarantined on the next floor. The entire neighborhood knew that polio was in that house and once he recovered, no one would befriend the "cripple".

John

​   ​     John's mother took him swimming on a hot summer day.  The next day, he fell ill - it was Polio.  Only 2 1/2, the toddler was hospitalized and put in an iron lung.  For 15 months, his mother was only able to see him on Sundays and was unable to touch her son.  He could only only see her by looking into a mirror which shone on his face.  He went home with a partially paralyzed left arm. 
     When he was five, he was hit by a car - that that same arm arm was broken. The doctor saw no need to set it as “he’s already crippled anyway”.  ​His arm was now permanently paralyzed.  Because he had already suffered from the poliovirus, his mother found no reason to  vaccinate him.
     At age 14, he got polio again. This time, he spent nine months in an iron lung.  Twice he fell victim to this terrible disease.  Twice he got up again.​

John M.

       John went into the Marine Corp in 1948.  He trained at Parris Island, SC and entered an infantry exercise on the USS Worcester in the Mediterranean Sea.  After the invasion of South Korea,  John was shipped abroad to the Suez Canal, the South China Sea, Japan and Korea.  He participated in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in what would become the decisive battle of the Korean War.  
     On his return to the US, Corporal Margie became a Marine Recruiter in Defiance, Ohio. While transporting new recruits to Parris Island, he contracted Polio. A patient at the US Naval Hospital for two years, he was named “Polio Marine of the Year”.  John always credited the US Navy doctors, nurses and his family for his ability to regain the ability to move.
     John struggled significantly with the late effects of polio. . . but he was a Marine.  He always forged ahead.  A Rotarian, John could always be counted on to volunteer for his community.  He loved to say “It’s the training that makes the difference”, and he trained well.   His favorite saying was “Semper Fi” !  Always faithful to our mission of service to all polio survivors, we miss him.  Well done John. 

John M.

    One day he was an active 12-year-old riding his bike, playing baseball and climbing trees.  The next,  he remembers feeling bad, missing school, developing a limp and was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital.   
​     John went to the Industrial Home for Crippled Children in Pittsburgh for rehabilitation.  He was in a ward with five other boys, one with TB, two who with cerebral palsy and a couple of other polio patients. The first step in the recovery process came from a physical therapist who put John through a very painful process, 7 days a week, of working to and past the point of pain  for every muscle affected.  Once a week they went to the pool.  There he wat put onto a  submerged board where the meanest PT in the eyes of a 12 year old, would work him over.   ​

Kat

    Kat caught polio at 14 months old.  She was on an iron lung and wore leg braces until she was 5.  She always had some breathing issues and skinned more knees than any other child from tripping over nothing!  She became a special education teacher and taught on 3 continents for 30 years before retiring. She has a wonderful daughter and a fantastic husband. At 50 the falling and breathing issues became more frequent and Kat found how misunderstood polio and the late effects of this virus really are.   At 60, her breathing issues became so significant she got a power chair, a service dog and had to go on a ventilator (certainly an upgrade from an iron lung).  A virus that she recovered from as a toddler has forever changed her life.  Life on a ventilator. . . . THIS is what a virus is capable of. ​

Laura

    Laura had polio at 20 months old.  "I was told as a young child by the physical therapists that I would have to work harder and be better, than those who were not disabled. 'The world doesn’t owe you a living' I was told. It was an either/or situation. You either worked hard to achieve some type of normalcy or you were left behind to stay at home and not participate in society. 
    I never wanted to be my disability; I wanted to be like everyone else. I went about my life as if I wasn’t disabled; however, it would trip me up every so often as a reminder. Now it is a constant reminder. I have to make decisions every day about what I can and cannot take on.
   Many of the ailments I’ve been dealing with for the past twenty years, I attributed to 'getting older with polio'.  My primary care doctors didn’t seem to understand my symptoms either, often sending me for repeat sessions of physical therapy for the purpose of muscle 'strengthening' to build up my weakening muscles. PT always left me feeling more fatigued and spent. Instinctively I’ve realized over the years that I can no longer do what I used to do; that I need to slow down because of the muscle pain and fatigue. But this (Post-Polio Syndrome) is difficult for us who have built our lives on over doing to compensate for our disability."

Marty

     No one in her family knows where Marty might have contracted the poliovirus.  She was in a large polio ward in Oklahoma City for 6 weeks.  Initially, both of her arms and legs were paralyzed.  When she went home, she was lucky to be able to walk and learned how to play with my toys using her feet.  She has some of the strength in her left arm, but her right arm has remained completely paralyzed. 
     'When I was in first grade, my papers kept slipping around on the desk because my right arm could not hold it down.  My dad brought home one of the little desks from my classroom, and built a device that had a clipboard clip on the top of the desk that was operated by a pedal on the floor that I could push with my feet.  I also learned to write with my feet and discovered I could do far more with my legs than walking!' 

May

​     Born in Taiwan, May contracted polio when she was barely 1. She remembers going to a clinic for heat therapy and getting hot water poured on her legs.  She has never been able to “squat” due to muscle weakness.   After coming to the US, she met and married Winn,  a fellow survivor. 
      She led an active adult life.  PPS entered the picture when she started falling in her early 40’s.  She was careful, but only able to stay stable for awhile.  Now, her muscle weakness is more significant.  She knows that by using a cane, a rollator and limiting her activities, her pain and weakness are currently
manageable.  Neither May nor Winn are able to climb any steps.  
      As May and her husband BOTH struggle with Post-Polio Syndrome differently, she can see clearly how different the late effects of polio can be for others.

Nancy

          Nancy was six when she came down with a high fever and a stiff neck. The next thing she knew, she was alone in an ambulance bound for a hospital at the other end of the county. She barely remembers weeks in isolation, where nurses and doctors wearing face masks came and went.  There were so many hours with steaming hot packs on her legs that she’ll never forget the smell of wet wool.
     Sixty years later, she can clearly remember the awful pain of the spinal tap that confirmed the polio diagnosis.  “No wonder we polio survivors are so brave and fearless."

Robert

    Robert was born in in the hills of Appalachian coal country. “When I was seven months old, my Mother and Daddy noticed my runny nose and how much I was falling when I was trying to hold onto furniture and pull myself up.  By the time the tests were completed, I couldn’t stand at all."  The baby boy was whisked away to a polio clinic in Marmet, West Virginia. “Bobbie” as he became known, resided at the rehabilitative clinic for five years. 
     Many years later, after dealing with episodes of falling, chronic pain in his lower back and struggling being cold constantly, he was diagnosed as having the late effects of polio – called PPS.  A Pastor, Robert has never lost his faith and has continued minster to others as he deals with chronic pain..

Roger

    Roger  was 12 when he became ill.  Because they were overflowing, he was not taken to the hospital.
​     After a three-week battle with the virus, much of his right side was paralyzed and he was finally taken to the hospital.  Because there were no open beds, his parents were told to leave their son in the "garage" next door.   They had no choice, and did what they were asked. 
     He was there, with the other "quarantined kids" for a month.

Sally

     Sally had only a "mild", viral like illness, recovering easily after a few days. No one knew that she could be inadvertently spreading the poliovirus.  No one will ever know if she did.  As a "long hauler", the virus caused untold damage and she requires the use of a wheelchair on a daily basis.

Shirley

    Shirley lived on a farm.  One day, the 12 year old felt too tired to feed the chickens. The next day, she was unable to walk.  It was polio. 
    After 3 weeks in the hospital, she was moved 100 miles from her home, to the Home of the Merciful Savior (HMS) in Philadelphia (a residential facility for polio patients).  She lived at HMS until she was 17.  Shirley never felt abandoned and found a new “family” in her friends.
    After graduating from Temple University, she was told that no one would hire a teacher with a disability. That didn’t stop her.  Shirley went on to teach middle school at HMS for 35 years.
     Shirley fell in love with fellow HMS student, Fred – also a polio survivor.  Both of them required braces and crutches as they worked full time and raised their two daughters.  Shirley displays a “can do” attitude and is a problem solver, viewing barriers only as “challenges to be overcome”. 

Vera

           Vera was 22 and had been traveling through Europe with her college roommate.  After her energetic first day in Rome, she got out of bed and fell to the floor, unable to get up. Something was very wrong.  She asked the American Embassy for an American doctor. A physician arrived and diagnosed spinal meningitis.  Twenty-four hours later, she was paralyzed from the waist down.  This time they sent Italian neurologist.  He spoke no English and she spoke no Italian.  It was polio.  He took her to his Clinic (which turned out to be a mental institution).
       Placed in isolation, she was confined to bed for a month in a foreign country.  The doctor said they had no experience in Italy with polio in adults because they believed only children got polio. 

Survivor Story Video Corner

Bill

Brad

Carol

Carol F. for CHOP

Cathy for CHOP

Deb

Deb S. for CHOP

Janice

Janice N. for CHOP

Jim

Joe

Peter

Joe R. for CHOP

John

Kathy S. for CHOP

Martha

Let’s preserve the truth. 
​These short stories help others understand the realities of what is NOW a Vaccine Preventable Disease.

Make a Video:  If your computer has access to the internet and a camera, that’s all you need. 

• Many desktops, smartphones and Ipads have this ability and we don’t even know it. 
• Both John and Joe self recorded these short videos on their phones.
• Bill did his on an Ipad.
• Carol did hers on a five year old laptop.

         Are you part of a support group that’s using Zoom ?  

• Deb and Jim recorded theirs with us recording through a “zoom” call.
• Perhaps your group can record the stories, save them to an mp4 and share them with us.   
  

Write a Short Story. These are brief and powerful

​It's time to tell YOUR story.  These short stories are easy.  
Email to: info@papolionetwork.org
​Polio is gone in many parts of the world, but has yet to be completely eradicated.
ALL children that can be, MUST be vaccinated.
​​By joining together, we have become a part of the solution.

SURVIVOR STORIES FROM THE KEYSTONE STATE

SURVIVOR STORIES