Tade, Christine - Johnson County

Tell us what you remember of the impact of polio:

When my brothers and I were babies, living with our family in student housing while my father attended dental school at the University of Iowa, our babysitter was struck with polio. I was too young to remember this, but my mother later told me that one day I started screaming as if I were in terrible pain and got stiff. One of my brothers and I were diagnosed as having light cases of polio; we had to wear leg braces for awhile, and I was never as strong as other children my age, but otherwise there were no lasting effects for us.

In 1954, my father had rejoined the Navy intending to have a career as a dental officer. The family (my parents and four children ages 6 and under) moved to Camp Pendleton, California. My father contracted polio from one of his patients - one day he had a terrible headache and the next he was completely paralyzed and in a respirator. My first real memory is of my third birthday party, held in the hospital room next to the respirator. My dad had a slanted mirror over his head so he could see out into the room, and I remember the “portholes” on the sides of the respirator, so that nurses could tend to him. Once during the year he was in the respirator, the power went out and hospital personnel had to rush in a generator to keep him breathing. After that year, he was gradually weaned from the oxygen and flown back to Iowa City where he underwent a year of physical therapy at the VA hospital. His therapist was an African American, James May, who essentially gave him his life back. Mr. May had to commute from Davenport for several years because his family could not find housing in Iowa City. My father eventually was able to breathe and walk on his own; he lost the use of his right arm and had to train himself to write left-handed, although that arm was weak also. He wore a large back brace and arm braces for the rest of his life.

My mother, a very strong woman and a nurse, had to take care of four children, bathe and dress my father, do all the driving, the housework, and the yard work. My father went back to graduate school and got his masters and Ph.D. in oral pathology. He dictated his thesis and dissertation into a Dictaphone. After receiving his degrees, he joined the faculty in the College of Dentistry, and several times was named teacher of the year. There is now a scholarship in his name for dental students from Iowa. Thirty-two years after contacting polio my father succumbed to post-polio syndrome and died at the age of 62.

Describe the reaction of your family and others you knew to the development of the vaccine:

The vaccine had been developed by the time my father contracted polio, but was only being administered to children. I remember going to the University of Iowa Field House with my brothers to receive the vaccine in the form of pink sugar cubes.

General Comments :

One of the constants of my childhood was the experience of being out in public with my family. My father was a rather shy man and people, young and old, would stop and stare at him because of the braces he wore. Although I was shy myself, I remember staring back at people, trying to shame them into good manners.

My father never complained, at least in front of his children, about his pain, his tiredness, his discouragement. He was sweet-tempered and good humored, and had many friends who eased his life. My mother was a fierce, courageous, and nearly inexhaustible woman who kept my father and our family going.