Medicine: The Man in the Iron Lung

The best-known polio paralytic in the U.S. was rounding out his tenth year in an iron lung. Jovial, 35-year-old Fred B. Snite Jr. had set a record: no other infantile paralysis victim in like case has survived more than a year. Last week, attended by his pretty wife Teresa and his three pretty little daughters (Pinkie, 6; Katherine, 3; Mary, 1), he was trundled onto a special railroad car in Chicago for his annual winter trip to Miami Beach, Fla. (see cut).

In doctors' language, Fred was doing nicely. Though his 900-lb. iron lung still looked like his permanent home, his life in most other respects was almost normal. Now down to one physical therapist and two nurses (from a high of six), he gets out of his lung for three to seven hours each day, sits up in a light respirator, even "walks" a bit in a birdcage-like contraption.

When in Chicago, he goes to night football games (his big lung is parked in a corner of the field and he looks on through his mirror). In Miami he is a constant spectator (and bettor) at jai alai games. His favorite sport: bridge, which he plays almost every night with his wife and friends. An expert, with a rating of three master points, he plans to compete in the national championships in Florida this winter.

Says his wife, when people ask about his prospects for improvement: "We don't even think about it. Fred is quite happy as he is."

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Quotes of the Day »

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TOMMY WARD, whose family has been harvesting oysters from the Gulf of Mexico since the 1920s, on the FDA's plan to ban the sale of raw oysters that are harvested in warm months; about 15 people die each year due to raw-oyster contamination

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