Weir, Mike - Scott County

Describe what you remember about the fear surrounding polio epidemics:

I was very young and remember very little.

Tell us what you remember of the impact of polio:

My name is Mike Weir and I am a Polio Survivor. In 1951, at age 4, I was stricken with polio. The entire left side of my body was paralyzed. Through the persistence of my Mother and the Sister Kenny's methods of treating polio, I was spared most of the disfiguring and shrinking of my left arm and leg. I do not have a complete calf muscle in my left leg and my left leg is about a 1/2 inch shorter than my right leg. It would have been much worse if not for my Mother's persistence.

In 1951 my family took a vacation to the Ozarks, in Arkansas. We were visiting an Aunt and Uncle. After we returned home (Ottumwa, Iowa) I was stricken with polio. It was assumed the water in the lake in Arkansas was contaminated and that was where I contracted the disease. My mother took me to medical doctors and chiropractors in Ottumwa and Iowa City. All told her there was nothing they could do for me. Beings how I was now having breathing problems and did not require an Iron Lung (as many polio victims did), she was told to let it run it's coarse and deal with the deformities.

Thankfully my mother would not and could not accept this. I do not know how she found the Sister Kenny Foundation, but I am glad she did. I know that they set up a Sister Kenny treatment facility in Ottumwa and my Mother started taking me there. They used hot packs to reduce the muscle spasms and pain and worked the extremities in a motion similar to the actual motion the extremities would have made if they had been able to. I do not know how long this went on, but by the time I was 5 1/2 I was walking and running and going to Kindergarten. So I am one of the Very Lucky Polio Survivors.

Now 30 or 40 years later, some polio survivors are being stricken again. Post Polio Syndrome is a disease that comes back to torture polio victims again. There doesn't seem to be an answer for this, other than the fact that many motor nerves were lost in the original polio attack and that it may become a factor in later life. I had such a light case of Polio, that from what I have been able to find out, I have little chance of getting Post Polio Syndrome. So hopefully I never will. I am a very lucky person.

Vaccine:

In 1953, I had to be vaccinated. My mother was worried that I would get polio again, after just getting over polio.  So she was not happy I was forced to do it to get into school.

General Comments:

Thanks Mom