Paul Alexander, 78, was hospitalized in February with a coronavirus infection. He contracted polio during a polio epidemic in the 1950s, when he was just 6 years old and living in Texas.
Despite his illness, Alexander graduated from Law and ran his own law firm. In March 2023, The Guinness World Records declared Alexander the longest surviving iron lung patient alive. He also published the book Three Minutes for a Dog, in which he chronicled his life. In recent months, Alexander started a TikTok account calling himself Polio Paul.