University of Pennsylvania Museum Publications Tales from Inside the Iron Lung (And How I Got Out of It) (Anniversary Collection)

Regina Woods, just weeks before her fourteenth birthday, contracted polio. Within a few days, she was paralyzed from the neck down, unable even to breathe by herself. What is most profound about this book is that—while it is an account of catastrophic loss—there is so much triumph in it. From the Back Cover In August 1952, Regina Woods was a healthy, active thirteen-year-old, living in Lyons Station, Kentucky. In September, just weeks before her fourteenth birthday, she contracted severe paralytic polio. Within a few days, she was irreversibly and almost totally paralyzed from the neck down, unable even to breathe by herself. Today, with the aid of a supported leather sling, she can make halting partial use of some fingers of her right hand, but she cannot walk, she cannot sit unassisted, she cannot move from one position to another, she cannot feed herself, she cannot comb her hair, she cannot scratch an itch on the end of her nose. Tales from Inside the Iron Lung is Regina's extraordinary view of a life lived under burdens unimaginable to most people; it is also a story of the remarkable resilience of the human spirit. Regina's illness, which was often life-threatening, required fourteen months of inital hospitalization, most of the time spent within the Emerson respirator - the monstrous, tank-like, full-body iron lung. Confinement in an iron lung, regarded by most people as an unbearable imprisonment, is from Regina's perspective freedom - freedom from the agonizing struggle to breathe. Through Regina's eyes, the most commonplace activities, like feeding oneself, or shopping at the mall, become causes for joy. And what is most profound about this book is that - while it is an account of catastrophic loss, full of instances of deliberate and casual cruelty committed by caretakers, shopkeepers, and others - there is so much triumph in it. Regina's philosophy of life is compatible with her fierce need to control her destiny despite her physical helplessness. She makes no attempt torevolutionize the world, medical care, or even the treatment of the disabled. Instead, she shows that ghastly irreversible illness need not destroy joy, intellect, curiousity, love of life, or a rich existence. Tales from Inside the Iron Lung is a charming, forthright, and unpretentious tale of courage, full of thoughtful observations on the human condition.