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Meet Paulo Machado, the man who has lived in hospital for 45 years
- rurounijones 13y agoOne short article that was equal parts inspiring, heart-rending and heart-warming. I look forwards to the animation.
- vxNsr 13y agoSweet. I only know one person who contracted polio, when he was 10 or eleven polio was nearly over in the US, he was one of that last children to get it here, and his case was relatively mild, he basically just lost functionality of his left calf muscle. He showed me his leg once, it's a really interesting contrast, one leg is full and normal looking and the other looks like it was taken from one of those starving african children, it's really just skin and bone. He's been a judge in Philadelphia for more than 30 years.
- beloch 13y agoPolio doesn't always leave visible long-term side-effects. My father had it and was partially paralyzed for a couple of years as a child, but is normal now. He got lucky! One can only hope that, when we're so close to the final goal, people continue supporting vaccination efforts to finally put an end to this disease.
- swixmix 13y agoI just wanted to add some more information to your comment. The long-term side-effects are called Post Polio Syndrome and there's a International Polio Network at http://www.post-polio.org/ http://www.post-polio.org/
- jacalata 13y agoThe more obvious long term side effect is nerve damage/paralysis, as in the case of the article, which is distinct from post-polio syndrome.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- hkmurakami 13y agoThe unanswered question upon reading this article for me has been, "how do these two afford this kind of care for decades?" Wealthy parents? Generous relatives? Great national healthcare coverage in Brazil? It's just unthinkable for a normal family in the United States (I understand that these two are in Brazil) to be able to afford this, at least in this day and age.
- ks 13y agoAccording to Wikipedia it seems that Brazil has universal free health care http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Brazil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Brazil
- eitally 13y agoYes, but it's generally crap and everyone who can afford private insurance (or just paying list prices at private clinics), does. <-- works with many Brazilians and spends about a month of each year there.
- leandrod 13y agoWorse than that — it is universal in theory but not in practice, as often there will be no doctors around in the State‐run health system, and not enough medicine and other medical supply.
- nikatwork 13y agoGenuine question - what happens for these types of cases in the US if the patient isn't rich? Does the patient get turfed out onto the street once they run out of money?
- ars 13y agoMedicaid pays for it. (And eventually Medicare when they get old enough.) People have such a strange view of medical care in the US. Medicaid is available to anyone who needs it (i.e. financially plus special medical circumstances). And all children in the US are able to have medical coverage - if they can't afford it the government pays for it (or gives a pro rated discount). There is no such thing as not [being able to] have coverage for your kids because you can't afford it. So basically the old and the young are both covered. The gap is in the middle.
- ars 13y agoThis jumped out at me: "The danger of infection means that they have to live in hospital." Isn't a hospital like the worst possible place in regards to infection?
- carlob 13y agoI believe the author refers to the danger of infecting others.
- ars 13y agoIs polio really contagious 50 years later?
- jacalata 13y agoNo, it is not. They do not "have" polio now, they were paralyzed by the disease and the paralysis remains after the disease is gone. My mother had polio as a child and is crippled in one leg, but otherwise of normal health. I'm not sure what the infection worry is - it might be something to do with the paralysis/use of the iron lung?
- leandrod 13y agoThey do live in a controlled environment. And this is a reference hospital for infection control. I know a nurse who was once one in charge of infection control in the child’s ward — actually, a smaller hospital of its own in the main hospital grounds; the whole thing is huge — and she was quite competent, as are most of the medical staff there. They usually go to conferences in the US and Europe and all that.