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

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.

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. 

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.

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

     One day I was an active 12-year-old riding my bike, playing baseball with my friends and climbing trees on my grandmother’s farm.  The next day, I remember feeling bad, missing school and developing a limp.  The next thing I knew, I was in an ambulance on my way to the hospital.   
​     I went to the Industrial Home for Crippled Children in Pittsburgh for rehabilitation. I was placed in a ward with five other boys, one who had TB, two who were victims of cerebral palsy and a couple of other polio patients. The first step in the recovery process came from a physical therapist who put me through a difficult series of stretching exercises for every muscle affected. The PT was a very painful process of working to and past the point of pain.  I went through this ordeal seven days a week. Once a week we were taken to the pool where we could swim.  They had a submerged board were Miss Whitfield (the meanest PT in the eyes of a 12 year old) would work you over.   

John

​   ​      John was only two when he was confined to an iron lung for 15 months. He went home with a partially paralyzed left arm. When he was five, he was hit by a car - his left arm was broken. The doctor saw no need to set it as “he’s already crippled anyway”.  ​His arm was now permanently paralyzed.
     At age 14, he got polio again. He spent nine months in an iron lung.  Twice he fell, twice he got up again.​

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. ​

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."

Roger

   Roger was 12 when he became ill.  Because the hospitals 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.

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

Carol

Joe

John

Jim

Bill

Deb

Brad

Peter

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

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.
They recorded and emailed the file to us at info@papolionetwork.org.
(They can easily be attached to the email and shared with us using Google Drive if the file is large).
(or)  For those on Facebook, join us at PA Polio Survivor’s Network
Upload your short video to our Facebook page (or yours, and tag us).
(Please email us and let us know you’ve done it).
  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.     

​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