Sunday, March 1, 2015

In the Shadow of Polio


In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History Paperback – May 16, 1997

Author: Visit Amazons Kathryn Black Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0201154900 | Format: PDF, EPUB

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In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History – May 16, 1997
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Amazon.com Review

A memoir of her mothers horrifying descent into an iron lung--and into the grave two years later--this powerful, heart-wrenching book is also a well-researched and vivid account of the onset of the polio epidemics of the turn of the century and the conquering of the disease in the 1950s. Virginia Black, the authors mother, contracted both bulbar and spinal polio just weeks after the first American children had been inoculated with Jonas Salks controversial vaccine. Virginia Black did not survive, but her daughter, six years old when her mother died, grew up to write an important first-hand account of this frightening crippler.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1954, when journalist Black was a four-year-old living in Phoenix, her mother, Virginia, was diagnosed with bulbospinal polio and became completely paralyzed within two days. In gripping prose, Black poignantly traces the two-year course of Virginias illness, which ended with her death at 30. After being encased in an iron lung for months, she adapted to a rocking bed and respirator and was sent home to Boulder, Colo., to be cared for by her own mother and by her husband, Del, who coped by drinking heavily and absenting himself from his family. Black intersperses research about the polio epidemic that swept the U.S. from 1942 to 1953 throughout her memoir. She vividly describes the desperate search for the cause of the disease and for ways to treat it, as well as provides accounts of families devastated by it. After Virginias death, Blacks father left (they have only recently resumed contact), and she and her brother were raised by her grandparents, who never discussed Virginia or her illness. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Direct download links available for In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History Paperback – May 16, 1997
  • Paperback: 330 pages
  • Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 16, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0201154900
  • ISBN-13: 978-0201154900
  • Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 6 x 9.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,032,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I was eleven when my mother contacted both bulbar and spinal polio in July of 1954. She lived for seventeen years. She was confined to a rocking bed and a chest respirator. She eventually died at home while confined to an iron lung. My brother age 12 and Sister age 8 also contacted very mild forms of polio. My father and I did not show any symptoms of the disease. For the first month of her hospitalization we (children) lived with my father parents on a farm. When school started we were brought home and were under the care of a housekeeper and neighbors. My father traveled to Ann Arbor almost every day to be with her. Unlike Kathryns father, our father never abandoned us children; nor did he ever give up on our mother. As a summery comment I would have to say that he truly lived up to his marriage vows. Although we were older when out mother contacted the disease, out lives pretty much paralleled that of Kathryn and her brother. Out mother spent almost two years! in the "Polio Ward, 9th floor" of the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. I dont remember exactly when she came home to stay, but she did get home on some weekends. I remember that she was allowed to come home for Christmas 1954. It was for the day and she had quite a contingent of caregivers and equipment. When she did finally come home to stay, we were encouraged to lay down with her in the rocking bed. Boys being boys, my brother and I didnt do that to often, but my sister was a regular rocker. We did assist a lot with her care and physical therapy. We spent many weekends visiting and making friends with polio victims; I often wonder what ever became of them. Some I know to be deceased. (I corresponded with one young lady while I did my tour of service in Germany. I saw her once after I got out).

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