The Killer and Crippler - Disease

In my Disease course, we were assigned to research and illustrate the anatomy of our chosen disease, and create a patient profile. My patient profile is a fictional story about a women suffering from polio. The purpose of this action project was to allow our audience to experience what it is like to have polio. I learned about the different effects the polio virus has on the various systems of the body.

Below is my patient story and my illustration:

GN, 2014, Chicago

GN, 2014, Chicago

GN, 2014, Chicago

On the night of November 15, 1950, Melissa, a twenty year old Cape Fear Cotton Mill worker from Fayetteville North Carolina, went to bed with a fever. “This wasn't just any fever,” she would later recall, “My body temperature kept elevating throughout the week.”

Something had been incredibly wrong for nearly a week. Melissa slept sporadically for ten or twelve hours a day. She imaged many causes to explain her symptoms – overwork, flu.

By late November, Melissa an ebullient, gregarious, goal-driven, and energetic women, was exhausted and could barely stand up straight. Melissa felt overwhelmingly tired.

She had been having a little cold, but in November 30, 1950 she began to have trouble breathing and was rushed to the Hospital in Fayetteville. A diagnosis was made, via spinal tap, of Bulgar polio.

She was then whisked away to an isolation ward accepting polio patients. Outside her room, frantic activities took place outside her room. Doctors and nurses were moving about collecting data and writing reports. As she looked from her hospital bed all she saw were dull clouds covering the city. She was quickly placed in a machine designed to do the work of paralyzed muscles. Even with the support of the mechanical “caregiver,” Melissa was succumbing to polio. She was whisked to the operating room for an immediate tracheotomy, which helped with breathing. Melissa was given antibiotics and painkillers to reduce her muscle pain and to prevent her from contracting a urinary infection.

Melissa was puzzled by her diagnosis. She had always avoided public free places in fear of contracting this virus. “Polio is terrifying to experience, treat, and observe.” It is an infectious virus. It affects the autonomic nervous system, the part of the nervous system concerned with involuntary jobs, such as digestion, posture, breathing and many more.

The polio is an infectious virus is spread through fecal oral transmission.

It is a viral disease that occurs because of poor hygiene. “Polio is a killer and a crippler that prefers infants and children”. Separated from her family, Melissa endured grueling physical therapy. She faced months of arduous muscle therapy to strengthen weakened muscles in a large wards segregated by age and gender. “I experienced prejudice and discrimination seeking work.” Melissa experienced joint degeneration and skeletal deformities, such as spinal curvature.  

“Because of the poliovirus I would never raise a family or marry, I am a disgrace to my family.” Melissa is now living with post-polio syndrome and its distressing symptoms. Countries with high polio-virus circulation are Southeast Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, and Africa, third world countries. Post- Polio syndrome causes patients to have different symptoms, such as slowly progressive muscle weakening, generalized and muscular fatigue, and muscle atrophy. Post- polio syndrome interferes with an individual’s ability to independently function. Polio causes our respiratory muscles and swallowing muscles to weaken, which can result in troubles breathing and pneumonia (  Robbins, "The History of Polio Vaccine Development.)

Polio was the most feared disease of the twentieth century. It crippled around 35,000 people each year in United States (AMANDA KEHLER, “Poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis). There is no known cure for polio. Vaccination is the only prevention against poliomyelitis. 

Works Cited:

-          AMANDA KEHLER. "Poliomyelitis (infantile Paralysis)." Healthy Hippie. N.p., 26 July 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. <http://www.healthyhippie.net/poliomyelitis-infantile-paralysis/>

-          "Poliomyelitis (infantile Paralysis, Polio)." Poliomyelitis (infantile Paralysis, Polio). N.p., Jan. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. <http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/poliomyelitis/fact_sheet.htm>\

-          David Perlstein, MD, MBA, FAAP, Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD. "Polio Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - What Are Signs and Symptoms of Polio? - OnHealth."Onhealth. N.p., 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://www.onhealth.com/polio/page2.htm>.

-          Paul, J. R. 1971. A History of Poliomyelitis. New Haven: Yale University Press.

-          Robbins, F. C. 1999. "The History of Polio Vaccine Development." In Vaccines, 3rd edition, ed. S. A. Plotkin and W. A. Orenstein. Philadelphia: Saunders.

-          Zuber, P. L. F. 2002. "Poliomyelitis." In Encyclopedia of Public Health, ed. L. Breslow, B. D. Goldstein, L. W. Green, et al., pp. 932-933. New York: Macmillan.