Polio was an epidemic in America in the 1950’s. Nearly 60,000 cases with more than 3,000 deaths were reported in the United States at the height of the polio epidemic in 1952. Today, there are no signs of the disease in the U.S. due to the vaccination. However, polio still strikes. Those who had it in the 1940’s and 1950’s now have it again.
How do I know? My mother has it. She is living now with Post Polio Syndrome. She’s been living with it for the past several years. Because of it, she is confined to a scooter and she’s on oxygen most of the day and night.
The other day, my uncle, my mother’s brother, came into my office. He started to tell me a story of a time in his life when he was about five or six years old. His sister (my mother) was in the hospital in an “iron lung.” Since she had polio, he was unable to go near her. He told me that he got shuffled from one relative to the next because his parents (my grandparents) spent every day and night in the hospital with my mother.
One day, he went to visit my mother and he stood outside in the cold, waving up at her as she looked out the window of the hospital.
I started to get a chill. How horrible that must have been for both of them. How horrible that must have been for the entire family!
It’s scary to think that once a disease has a vaccination attached to it that it could come back in those originally affected by it.
Please share your post polio stories with me…
*If anyone wants more information on Post Polio Syndrome, contact Polio Health International.
