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Customer Reviews (25)

A Meaningful Life Past Polio
The book is an amazing account of a life lived with polio. The book examines the days after the virus strikes Gary Presley, and follows his lifelong journey. Gary's life suddenly changes when he is stricken by polio. The book brings out the rage, passion, and acceptance of his journey to live a life both dependent on his wheelchairs and caregivers, and a life that is built upon independent action. It is not only a personal account, but also a fascinating historical look at the equipment necessary for polio survival, the vaccine, and the attitudes of the medical community in the early days of polio vaccination. The book turns from the tumultuous emotional changes in the world of a 17-year-old to dealing with care providers and building a genuinely creative, and passionate life in the process. Gary offers the book's readers the opportunity to see that working past life's tough challenges builds a meaningful life.

Hard to read, but first-rate writing
I'm almost afraid to write anything about this book. I mean this deeply personal memoir displays such a stew of mixed emotions and feelings, but leans, I think, most heavily toward anger and even rage. And with good reason, certainly. Gary Presley contracted polio at the age of 17 in 1959, which was nearly five years after the Salk vaccine had come along, nearly eradicating the virus in the U.S. Presley's illness was a kind of health care fluke - a live virus vaccine that gave him polio, rather than protecting him from it. So yeah. I'd have been pissed off too. But it wasn't this awful accident so much that made Presley so mad, and kept him that way for much of the next thirty years or so. Because he kinda made peace with that part of it. No, it was - and often still is - the attitudes of healthy people toward disabled, handicapped and crippled people that really kept him angry. For much of the book he rages against such attitudes that for so many years often made him feel something less than human, that "objectified" him and others like him, i.e. made him an object of pity. And I can't argue with those feelings of his, with his anger, his rage. I cringed inwardly throughout much of this book. Because I have been one of those people that made Presley so angry, that also caused him untold grief and even despair that he would ever be recognized as simply a human being with all the same hopes, fears, dreams and emotions that we all have. I mean I'm really torn here, trying to figure out my reaction to this book. So I'm going to try to make just a couple of points. (1) The prose here is absolutely first-rate. This is obviously a guy who has worked hard at learning the craft through literally years of writing, at first largely for his own purposes, but finally (thank God) to share his story with a larger audience. (2) This is not just a story about what it's like to be crippled. (I even shrink a bit at using that particular word. But Presley himself has used it in many and various forms here, so I'll risk it.) Nope. This is a story of a whole life, including what it was like to be an army brat who never had much chance to make close and lasting friendships. As a consequence, he had no lifelong friends to fall back on when polio struck. Hence years of isolation in which his main social contacts were his parents and his much younger brother. Which brings me to number (3). This is also a book about family. And although Presley's parents might be construed today as rather unenlightened about how to cope with a severely disabled child, Presley makes it clear that he knows that they did the best they could, and acted faithfully and lovingly as his only caregivers for nearly 25 years. (4) This is also a love story, and a most unique one at that. Because Gary Presley never expected to find someone to love, and someone who would love him back - not after nearly thirty years of "flying a wheelchair," as he puts it. But he did. And that discovery, that ... what? That good fortune, perhaps, changed the tone of the last part of the book. My wince and grimace relaxed a bit from the time Gary met Belinda. And I'm so very happy they found each other. Hmm ... that was more than a "couple" points, wasn't it? Anyway, if you want to know what goes on inside the mind of a quadriplegic - or at least get some small idea of what it might be like - then 7 WHEELCHAIRS is a good place to start. As a review, this feels very clumsy, but what the hell. I tried. This is not an easy book to read, but it is a damn fine piece of work. - Tim Bazzett, author of LOVE, WAR & POLIO: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF YOUNG BILL PORTEOUS

Can a Paraplegic Person Creat a Good Life?

Seven Wheelchairs: Life beyond Polio by Gary Presley

Can a quadriplegic person create a good life?

At seventeen, Gary Presley, a basketball-playing, helping-dad-with-the-farming high school junior, was struck with polio. For several years he felt in ways he has since regretted: he wasted his energy on anger and self-pity. His life began anew when he accepted that he would, as a quadriplegic, ride through life "on his fanny." He would not be "wheelchair bound", but rather, he would be freed by his wheelchairs, his coherent thinking, and his tenacity for life.

Presley frankly tells the reader details of the physical support he has required every day of his life. After his parents, who had been devoted to his care, died within thirteen months of each other, he was essentially left to fend for himself. For physical support, he had his portable respirator and hired attendants who arrived at his home for a couple of hours each morning and evening to help him into his wheelchair, among other things. While lying on his back in bed, he was incapable of even moving his legs. Yet he decided, against all advice from family and friends to the contrary, to live independently.

It is not that he was unafraid. Instead, Presley chose to face his fear of spending nights alone - what if the respirator breaks down, what if I wake up to a fire, what if ... But he refused to allow his fears to restrict him, and lives, as the book title suggests, a better life. It's a life in which he experiences joy and even bliss.

This richly informative book is a must read for all people with physical disabilities and their caregivers. I highly recommend Seven Wheelchairs: Life beyond Polio to the general public, and especially to those who allow fear to limit their living. Presley's riveting memoir so clearly depicts the author himself and some family members that, having finished the book, I feel as if I had met them in person.

The writing flows effortlessly as Presley shares brutally honest self-assessments and details sensory descriptions which are sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant. There are many apt metaphors and sections which are pure poetry to be savored and reread. It is, overall, a gratifying reading experience.

Unique, timely, and absorbing
Typical narratives about disability tend to go a little something like this: person is faced with a physical challenge, and with a supportive family, a lot of pluck, and a can-do attitude, learns not only to live but to flourish under their circumstances. Gary Presley offers a different sort of story-- and one that is probably far more typical in reality than the former kind. Stricken with polio as a teenager, he finds himself overwhelmed by the mental as well as the physical effects of the disease: the sense of helplessness, the struggle to see a bright and reasonably independent future for himself, the need to reconcile his former ideas of "Gary" with the Gary of the here-and-now. Although the memoir has been cited as being overly self-critical, that self-criticism is one of the book's most significant insights-- that those living with disabilities can struggle with the ways in which they restrict the lives of those who help them, and that it is not easy for a man to acknowledge a degree of helplessness, even if it comes by no fault of his own. This candid look into the mind of a quadriplegic should be a must-read for anyone working with the disabled. Some might come easily to that "can-do" mindset, but Presley takes us on the journey from an outlook of dependency to one not only of liberation, but of activism.

The historical aspects of Presley's book are fascinating as well. His in-depth description of polio hospitalization in the 1960s, with iron lungs and specially-made beds, paints a picture of an era lost to us now but at one point embedded deeply in the consciousness of medicine and parenting. It is particularly relevant to the vaccine debates today, causing the reader to consider both the dangers inherent in vaccination as well as the realities of the now-forgotten diseases they are meant to prevent. An excellent memoir filled with unexpected hope and genuine insight.

The UNROMANTIC truth about life in a wheelchair
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"I have worn out seven wheelchairs in forty-plus years.More accurately, I've worn out six, and I have been worn out by one.None of them were equipped with odometers.I can't tell you the number of miles I've ridden.I can only say it's been a long, strange journey."

The above is found in this honest and revealing book by Gary Presley (born: 1942) who contracted polio when he was seventeen years old.

(Polio or more correctly, Poliomyelitis is an acute viral infection spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route. From the Greek "polios" meaning "grey," "myelos" referring to the spinal cord, and the suffix "itis" which signifies inflammation.)

I thought when I first picked up this book that Presley had contracted polio (that left him paralysed and crippled) from infection through personal contact.I was surprised to learn that he actually got it through a vaccination (what he calls "a failed inoculation") that was supposed to protect against polio!!(I first learned that people could get certain diseases through vaccination many years ago when I read the superb book "Confessions of a Medical Heretic" by Dr. Robert Mendelsohn.)

Presley, surprisingly, does not complain about contracting the disease in this manner.(At that time, there was no money compensation for acquiring a disease in this way.)

The book is about how he coped with this terrible disease, gradually building an independent life and showing "that a life disabled is a life worth living, worth celebrating."

In this memoir, Presley shares with us such things as how his disease affected his parents, his months in an "iron lung" (used to artificially maintain respiration or breathing),his descriptions of other patients as well as descriptions of caregivers, his anger (rage really), depression, and alienation, his thoughts on suicide, employment, post-polio syndrome (symptoms are fatigue and muscle pain), prejudice and stereotypes, marriage, and finding religion.

Presley also passes onto the reader the wisdom that he has acquired.As a physically-disabled person, this wisdom had special significance to me.Note that you don't have to be disabled to appreciate Presley's wisdom.

Finally, I was surprised by the quality of the writing.In a word, it's exquisite & brutally honest and at points, even humorous.

In conclusion, in this unique memoir, polio victim Gary Presley gradually redefines himself as a "Crip" and "Gimp," effectively showing that there is indeed "a life beyond polio."In Presley's own words:

"I find joy in being alive, in words and music, in the taste of raw spinach with a touch of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, in the scent of flowers, in the flicker of film on screen, in the ideas leaping from book pages, in the playfulness and devotion of my dogs, and in the fragrance of my woman."

(first published 2008;acknowledgements;30 chapters;main narrative 225 pages)

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Product Description
Thirty-six poignant stories of polio survivors and their caregivers are recounted in this history of the evolution of medical treatment in Canada since the first major polio epidemic of 1927. Canada's pivotal role in the production and mass distribution of vaccines to thousands of children reveals the determination of the people and organizations that raised funds for treatment and researched the disease. ... Read more

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In a world convulsed by war and hatred, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, begun in 1988, stands as a rare and inspiring example of what can be done when the world works together against a common enemy. Sebasti"o Salgado, known for his dedication to the plight of the world's dispossessed in Workers (1994) and Migrations (2000), traveled to five polio endemic countries--Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan--to photograph the campaign to eradicate polio by 2005. He shares those photographs here. The book also includes a substantial essay by UNICEF writer Siddharth Dube, a comprehensive history of the disease presented in the form of an illustrated timeline; and information on how to help. THE END OF POLIO is an inspiring testament to the possibility for successful cooperation between nations and communities on levels ranging from local to global, as well as an important volume for those whose lives have been touched by polio. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (17)

Fascinating and readable
Really enjoyable and readable by the layperson. A fascinating look at why we do some of the things we do -- and just why polio is so frightening.

False advertising at its worst
Paul Offit, MD is a bought and paid for stooge of the pharma vaccine makers. He is paid by them to write books, articles and more to promote their vaccines. He was actually quotedas saying in magazine geared toward families with babies that a child could get 100,000 vaccines in one day and be fine. What a complete lack of respect for children. This man is delusional. This book is a waste of good paper. Although, it is good reading if you truly want to understand the "make money by forcing more and more vaccines on children" idea and why That Idea is so scary for our future.

A real problem and a contentious solution
There's a lot of noise about vaccines today, what with bird flu and who knows what over the horizon, but nothing compared with 50 years ago, when the Salk polio vaccine was introduced.
People younger than about 60 years old can hardly imagine the fear that gripped American parents every summer then. The shadow of the iron lung was far more terrifying than the shadow of the atomic bomb.
Salk vaccine worked and, under proper controls, was safe.
But controls were not proper, and vaccine made by Cutter Laboratories killed 10 people and paralyzed a few hundred more. At least several hundred thousand Americans were exposed to live polio virus. More did not become severely ill because fewer than one percent of people exposed to wild virus show symptoms.
Physician Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher and pediatrician in Philadelphia, says the "Cutter Incident" was more than just a forgotten medical mishap.
The net Offit casts brings back an amazing variety of things:research on aborted fetuses, Eddie Cantor and Nancy Reagan, Nobel Prizes and presidential politics, irresponsible journalists, backstabbing researchers.
Offit, a skilled expository writer, packs a lot of information into the first 130 pages to set up his current concern: That the fallout from Cutter Laboratories' bad vaccine led to legal precedents that continue to endanger lives today.
In other words, Offit has reached back half a century to find a hook on which to hang a plea for tort "reform."
Tort reform is a swamp with only a narrow causeway through it.
On the left hand lie the plaintiffs' lawyers, greedy, sensationalist and underhanded, as exemplified by the Milli Vanilli raid. On the right hand lie the corporate lawyers, who want their employers to enjoy all the benefits of legal personhood without any of the responsibility that flesh-and-blood persons bear.
However, it gets complicated.
For every flimflamming plaintiff's lawyer, there's a hard-fighting advocate who puts up his own money (in one case I know of, by taking out a second mortgage on his home) to get justified satisfaction for a penniless victim.
And for every Wall Street Journal editorial writer whose idea of reform is "loser pays" -- that is, the rich buy verdicts -- there's a corporation ruined by lies flogged by "consumer rights activists" -- Bendectin, for example, a safe drug no longer available to pregnant women.
Offit's proposal, not new but not catching on either, is for "drug courts," expert tribunals .
Instead of juries, his courts would have specially trained judges who could call on court-paid, neutral experts to assist judges to rule up or down on a vaccine's safety.
It is inevitable that when tens of millions are treated, some persons receiving even safe vaccines will have medical disasters, and it is not always easy to prove whether the vaccine was involved or not. In Offit's plan, a fund would compensate the authentically injured without necessarily affixing blame.
It would be not unlike no-fault auto insurance, although evencloser to an existing federal National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Offit believes it could recompense the injured (or merely unlucky)fairly while heading off frivolous lawsuits and encouraging pharmaceutical manufacturers to press on with research in risky, less lucrative areas of medicine.
Certainly Offit is on firm ground when he pleads to get decisions out of the hands of citizen jurors. If polls of Americans' beliefs and backgrounds are reliable, then on the typical jury of 12 persons, there are two or three who believe that disease is caused by demons, and not even one with any detailed knowledge about what viruses are or vaccines do.
As a result, we have got what Offit calls "a court system that functions as a national lottery for health care."

The Cutter Incident
The author presents the science and legal outcomes of this polio vaccine disaster in a clear and easy-to-understand manner.While telling a historical event, the author was aptly able to show how families today are still being affected-making this book a great read for those who have wondered just what is going on with vaccines, vaccine shortages, and the vaccine industry.

Pure Tripe
Frighteningly, Offit argues that Cutter should have been exonerated from liability for killing and maiming children because it was found to have followed government requirements in the manufacture of vaccine found to be harmful, EVEN THOUGH, despite having "followed the right instructions" it KNEW the vaccine still contained live virus and thus was harmful.This is analogous to manufacturing cars that meet all safety requirements stipulated by the government, but then having knowledge that the cars will blow up ANYWAY, and thinking it is still o.k. to put them on the market.

Paul Offit likes to think that science should be left to the "experts".Fair enough.I would suggest he leave legal analysis of the concept of negligence to the lawyers.

Mary Tiesenga ... Read more

Product Description
In October 1952, a twenty-eight-year-old mother of two young children was diagnosed with bulbar polio which affected shoulders, arms and breathing. Soon the patient was placed in a chest respirator (which assisted breathing) and a tracheotomy was performed (which provided a clear airway for breathing). Early in the hospital stay, pregnancy was discovered.After a total of 8 months in the hospital, isolated from the children, she returned home with both arms still in arm slings. She had only minimum use of the left arm which made living at home and dealing with children difficult. But a year later, the challenge of losing her home catapulted her back into the world of work. And this transition proved more demanding and, ultimately, far more rewarding than she imagined. ... Read more

Product Description
This sourcebook has been created for patients who have decided to make education and Internet-based research an integral part of the treatment process. Although it gives information useful to doctors, caregivers and other health professionals, it also tells patients where and how to look for information covering virtually all topics related to post-polio syndrome, from the essentials to the most advanced areas of research. The title of this book includes the word official. This reflects the fact that the sourcebook draws from public, academic, government, and peer-reviewed research. Selected readings from various agencies are reproduced to give you some of the latest official information available to date on post-polio syndrome. Following an introductory chapter, the sourcebook is organized into three parts. PART I: THE ESSENTIALS; Chapter 1. The Essentials on Post-Polio Syndrome: Guidelines; Chapter 2. Seeking Guidance; Chapter 3. Clinical Trials and Post-Polio Syndrome; PART II: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND ADVANCED MATERIAL; Chapter 4. Studies on Post-Polio Syndrome; Chapter 5. Books on Post-Polio Syndrome; Chapter 6. Multimedia on Post-Polio Syndrome; Chapter 7. Periodicals and News on Post-Polio Syndrome; PART III. APPENDICES; Appendix A. Researching Nutrition; Appendix B. Finding Medical Libraries; Appendix C. Your Rights and Insurance; ONLINE GLOSSARIES; POST-POLIO SYNDROME GLOSSARY; INDEX. Related topics include: Polio, Late Effects, Post-Polio Muscular Atrophy, Post-Polio Sequelae, Postpoliomyelitis syndrome. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best Post Polio book to read 1st
As a post polio person I have read & bought several copies of this book & given them to my doctors & people I know that are also post polio. The key to your condition is be informed because your doctor has not got a clue what it is or what to look for. I have been diagnosed with MS, Lupus, & several other maladies even when every doctor that has ever treated me I have told I had polio as a child. Today's doctors think of polio as if you once had chicken pox, no this is far different. This book is by far the best lay person's guide to what is happening in the body & what one can do for ones self. Also, join the Internet's post polio syndrome group helps once you are well informed. ... Read more

Product Description
Today many polio survivors are finding themselves with new symptoms reminiscent of the earlier days when they first had polio—new symptoms that trigger frightening memories, along with anxieties that had long been repressed.

Customer Reviews (2)

The Post-Polio Experience
A Valuable New Book for Every Polio Survivor

The Post-Polio Experience: Psychological Insights and Coping Strategies for Polio Survivors and Their Families,by Margaret E Backman, PhD

by Jean Fox Csaposs
Board Member
Polio Network of New Jersey

Many polio survivors I have met since joining the Polio Network of New Jerseyspeak of their difficulty in getting professional medical people to understand what they are going through--even to listen.At last, here is a book for you--and why not for them as well?

Margaret Backman has been listening to patients throughout her professional life as a clinical psychologist, and as we know from her visits to PNNJ conferences, her "listening ear" absorbs information that yields both wise and practical advice.In The Post-Polio Experience, she sums up her findings over the years and shares insights and coping strategies.The book is highly readable and usable.All of us who had polio will see something of ourselves and our lives in her chapters, which are grouped under several major themes: The Early Years, Psychological Issues, Self-Concept and Personality, Social Encounters, Personal Relationships, Medical Care, and Mental Health.

In her first chapter, "The Good Ol' Days--Or Were They?" Dr Backman spends some time helping us understand how the field of health psychology has gradually changed from total emphasis on research to an approach that increasingly recognizes the emotional impact of illness on both children and adults. "Although not widely practiced, the psychological needs of patients is becoming a part of the consciousness of physicians and other medical personnel and is included more and more in their training."Good news, even if belated!

As I read on and got into the specific issues for polio survivors, I was struck by "I Got Polio When I Was .. ."How true that the age of onset is indelibly engraved in the mind of almost every polio survivor!According to Dr Backman, this has huge importance for the way we see ourselves and how we have functioned throughout our lives.

A chapter packed with meaning for me was "Psychological Reactions to Polio and PPS."Dr Backman takes us through the difficult thickets of Defense Mechanisms: repression and weakened defenses, regressive behavior, avoidance, social withdrawal, and denial, with the sure touch of an experienced guide leading us through the emotional undergrowth, but with compassion and reassurance.With regard to PPS, she attributes most of the negativity to simple fear of what the future may hold."Resistance to wearing a leg brace." for example, "may on the surface appear unrealistic, if such support is needed.But this resistance may be an expression of the person's fear of impending lack of mobility."Other relevant examples abound; most of us will discover at least one-- maybe more--with the shock of recognition.Who--me??!!

In "Self-Concept and Personality," one issue Dr Backman deals with deftly is the almost universally accepted notion of polio survivors as having Type A personalities."Not that I've seen" is her simple answer, which she then elaborates, examining the history of "Type A" as a medical term designed to identify people prone to sudden heart attacks. The type exhibits aggressiveness, competitiveness, and impatience, and shows frequent displays of anger and hostility."Those with polio come in all stripes," she counters. "Some are ambitious, others more laid back, some have up-beat personalities, some are depressed."Why is it important to take a more balanced view of the Type A issue? Dr Backman says that labeling individuals can be harmful and can lead people to believe, erroneously, that their personalities are the cause of their PPS problems.

"Personal Relationships" offers a wealth of insight into the inter-action of polio survivors with family and friends.I found "Parents: Then and Now" a most absorbing chapter, as it explored this delicate terrain in a refreshing, non-judgmental way.

There is a clear and easy-to-follow design to "The Post-Polio Experience." As the reader moves on, remedies and coping strategies take center stage, in sections on medical care and mental health. Spaced through the book are 10 useful tables with provocative titles like "Depression: What to Do," "Reasons for Delaying Going to the Doctor," and "Managing Your Stress" with concise, bulleted checklists of information and advice.

Regardless of where we see ourselves in the spectrum of polio and PPS self-awareness, Dr Backman's book is one that readers will find illuminating and eminently worth sharing.
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The Post-Polio Experience
At first, I thought this was more appropriate for Psych 101 but, as I read further there are some very helpful tips.There are tables throughout with tables #1 (depression), #3 (family and survivors speak out) and #9 & 10 (dealing with stress) extremely helpful.I also found the sections on psychological issues (Chapters relating to reactions to polio and PPS and loss and bereavement) excellent.The section on medical care was also good.
The discussion on lack of physician knowledge or even awareness is unfortunately accurate.I think she missed a chance to suggest looking for help from a physiatrist (they specialize in physical medicine and rehabilitation))I was fortunate that my physiatrist had experience with PPS in his clinical work.All in all, I would recommend this book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Top notch, both as memoir and polio primer
This is a fascinating read, both as a primer on the nearly forgotten scourge that polio was up until fifty years ago, and also as a look into a tumultuous and difficult life. Anne Finger wasn't just coping with being a polio victim from early childhood, she also had to deal with a violently abusive parent in her father, who may well have been an undiagnosed bipolar/schizophrenic. Finger describes in frightening detail her long-suppressed memories of being choked and beaten by her father, behavior which was ignored or rationalized by her "enabler" mother. She also notes that her own clinical depression and suicidal tendencies as a young adult may have been inevitable, given her upbringing. In spite of all this, she continued to struggle for understanding of her parents' behavior, linking it often to her "imperfection" of being a polio from early childhood. There is much critically important information on polio - its history and near-eradication - here too, making it an important document in the literature of the disease. Finger has obviously done her homework, making numerous references to other talented polio memoirists and historians such as Leonard Kriegel, Charles Mee, Tony Gould, Peg Kehret, Daniel Wilson, John Paul and Wilfred Sheed, as well as other lesser known writers. This is an important and eminently readable book. - Tim Bazzett, author of Love, War & Polio ... Read more

Product Description
In graphic novel format, tells the story of Jonas Salk s involvement in the development of a polio vaccine. ... Read more

Product Description
Jonas Salk was born shortly before one of the worst polio epidemics in United States history.

In medical school when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was diagnosed with the disease shortly before assuming the Presidency, Salk was given an impetus to conduct studies on polio. His progress in combating the virus was hindered by the politics of medicine and by a rival researcher determined to discredit his proposed solution. But Salk's perseverance made history-and for more than fifty years his vaccine has saved countless lives, bringing humanity close to eradicating polio throughout the world.

Splendid Solution chronicles Dr. Salk's race against time-and agrowing epidemic that reached 57,000 reported cases in the summer of 1952-to achieve an unparalleled medical breakthrough that made him a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

well told story of key event in our medical history
Many people of at least a certain age recall polio, its terrible impact, and the tremendous accomplishment and relief that accompanied the arrival and success of the vaccine. This book (in my case, the well-down audio) gives the background, mostly beginning with the rise of polio around World War I, through its terrible peak in the early 1950s, as helpless parents and children feared the worst.

The author mixes in the history, the human interest, key people and probably enough science for most people. Obviously this is not meant to be a technical history, as it's partially a biography of Jonas Salk. That dual mission of bio and polio history provides some of the weaker moments of the book: sometimes there is too much detail about minor topics. Perhaps the biographical angle also allows the author to get into the personalities of many participants, painting an occasionally mixed representation of Salk himself, while not exactly treading lightly on Albert Sabin, and clearly letting personal skills and quirks drive other threads (e.g., Basil O'Connor's diplomacy, John Troan's relationship with Salk).

In fact, the key theme of the book may actually be all the interactions among the participants as the polio research begins, shows promise, and heads toward triumph. The number of players is huge, with contributions ranging from small to major, and many logistical challenges and potential black holes to avoid. Go ahead and organize a field trial with a million people spread throughout the country for an entirely new vaccine, all on short notice and with high risk.

Despite the tremendous accomplishment, I was left with the nagging feeling that dogged Salk, regarding how much science actually occurred. No real "drug" was invented. Instead, existing virus was killed and prepared and delivered in certain ways after great analysis and experimentation. Some of those problems were of course pure or nearly pure science. However, many of the others read as more akin to engineering and disciplined testing. The author certainly lauds Salk, his immediate team, and other scientists and technicians. He does not, however, specifically address that question, other than refer to it in the epilogue in a brief, frank commentary on how other scientists perceived Salk (the appalling "snub" of his research team at the vaccine's announcement also got significant play).

In the end, whether the vaccine was Nobel-worthy does not really matter. The Americans set out to conquer polio and did, a real monument to American initiative, talent and focus, plus no doubt a bit of luck. The story is worth hearing or reading, especially as polio recedes in American memory. How many people even dreamed that in a generation or two after FDR's death in 1945, polio would almost be gone?

Great book!
Well-written, easy-to-read book with just the right balance between development of polio vaccine and personal life and work of Salk.

Informative introduction to polio history
Knowing very little about vaccines and the history of Polio, I learned quite a bit from the book. Like other readers stated, there was quite a bit of extra information that I skimmed over and the author seems to idealize Salk quite a bit, but besides that I enjoyed the book.He does make a good point about the Salk vs Sabin issue. Salk's solution was a quick and dirty implementation which was very effective. Ultimately a combination of the live and killed virus served to almost erradicate the disease, but salk saved a lot of lives and a lot of anguish by getting a solution out very quickly instead of wading through the proper social channels, which are designed to feed the hosses at the top, and not solve problems quickly.

Great story about beating polio
This book really taught me a lot about the problem of polio and the incredible amount of work required to finally develop a vaccine for the disease.Living today, it is hard for us to understand the devastating consequences of every seasonal polio outbreak.The disease crippled and killed thousands of children every year, and communities lived in fear of the summer polio season.The book provides some biographical information on Salk, though it does not go into great depth.Probably the most interesting aspect of the book is the description of the management and logistics of organizing and running the effort to develop the vaccine.There was competition among scientists, funds had to be obtained, a tremendous number of test trials had to be run.I thought this was fascinating as we all take the vaccine for granted - it was quite a grind to develop it.I enjoyed the book and recommend it as an interesting read about a dedicated man who realized his dream and ambition to conquer one of mankind's worst diseases.Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio

Looking for a YES from nature

Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio is the fascinating if sometimes overly exhaustive story of Jonas Salk's crusade to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. Author Jeffrey Kluger sets the scene with the terror and helplessness felt by parents in the face of this dreadful disease and then covers the drive to conquer it in the 1950s.

Polio, formerly known as infantile paralysis, is caused by an enterovirus and spreads most efficiently by way of the gastrointestinal tract--that is, through water and food contamination. Before the early twentieth century it spread freely and there was a natural pool of immunity in infants and young children; sanitation improvements reduced this immunity and allowed seasonal epidemics to sweep from south to north in the United States every spring and summer. These epidemics peaked in the U.S in 1952, when 58,000 cases were identified, with over 3,000 deaths and 21,000 left paralyzed to some extent. Polio season was an annual scourge.

The country's most famous polio sufferer was Franklin D. Roosevelt, though ironically it is now believed that his disease was something else entirely. Guillain-Barre syndrome's loss was polio's gain, because FDR founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) which raised millions through its March of Dimes campaigns for polio treatment and research.

Jonas Salk took over the directorship of the Virus Lab at the University of Pittsburgh in 1947, and began work on the typing of the polio virus. It was eventually determined that there are three distinct types of the disease, and a successful vaccine would need to raise antibodies to all three types. Salk's lab was first past the post with a successful, safe vaccine, but many scientists contributed to the race. Vaccines can be made from viruses killed with formalin, or from a live weakened strain; Salk favored the killed virus and in 1952 his lab produced a vaccine that performed well against all three types of polio in limited trials. After further work, in 1954 the NFIP conducted a huge "observed control" trial involving 1.8 million children across the U.S. Finally in April 1955, the NFIP announced that the vaccine was safe and effective, and massive production and distribution began.

The science in SPLENDID SOLUTION is very well expressed and accessible to non-virologists; I found the lab saga and the history of the disease to be the most satisfying parts of the book. Kluger devotes many pages to the political infighting among the scientists and within the NFIP, and to the family life of Jonas Salk. Interesting as it all was, the polio story is the star of the book. The epilogue briefly covers the licensing of Albert Sabin's live oral vaccine in 1961, the worldwide impact of both vaccines, the reason that the U.S. and Great Britain went back to the inactivated killed virus, and the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate polio entirely. I'm sorry there wasn't room in the book for more coverage of these interesting topics; Atul Gawande's BETTER: A SURGEON'S NOTES ON PERFORMANCE has an excellent chapter on the WHO initiative.

There are many books about Jonas Salk and the conquest of polio. This is the first I've read, and it was fascinating. I recommend it if you are interested in the cultural landscape of the mid-twentieth century in the United States. The focused and well-funded race to save us from polio is a story worth the telling.

Linda Bulger, 2009
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Product Description
Combining copious and meticulous research with original letters, interviews, personal recollections and anecdotes, Tim Bazzett tells Bill Porteous's story with compassion, insight and humor. His narrative conveys a contagious and obvious delight in discovering how we are all connected. Here is a homespun history lesson about the nearly forgotten polio plague years and our fathers' and grandfathers' war, presented in a way that manages to bridge the gap between generations and even allows us to laugh a little as we learn of such serious matters.Perhaps in the end, however, Love, War & Polio is a simple and universal tale - one of faith, hope, and the healing power of love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An account of a tough struggle just after World War II
This is an account of a Michigan banker who was born on a farm in 1920, went to college, was in the Army during World War Ii, and in October 1945 was stricken by polio.The struggle that he made to overcome the handicaps he faced is well recounted.Of interest is that when in hospitals the subject of the book met Bob Dole, who had been severely wounded in the war, and also Charles Bennett, who was stricken by polio and went on to serve 44 years in the House of Representatives from Florida.The author adds a good touch by commenting on books, movies, songs, and radio programs mentioned by Porteous in letters he wrote his wife, which letters are quoted rather extensively.The book is laudatory and rightly so, though some might think it borders on the hagiographical.There is a bibliography, listing each book mentioned in the text--a feature I like since I do not appreciate books which lack a bibliography but expect the reader to page through the book to see the names of books cited.

another fine work from tim bazzett
Tim Bazzett's works are characterized by an informal narrative with lots of embedded black-and-white photos.You get the feeling that you're sitting down with someone who is relating their story, and showing you lots of photos from his/her album.You get to know them--it's as if you're listening to an uncle or old friend.I had read Reed City Boy, Soldier Boy, and Pinhead, wherein Tim Bazzett takes you through his life:as a boy growing up in Reed City, as a soldier in the ASA, and the first couple of post-military years where he goes to college and gets married.In Love, War, & Polio Tim initially intended to write a biography of Bill Porteous, a Reed City banker who served in WW II and who was a generation older than Tim.But he found that he could not distance himself from Bill, who he had known and admired for decades.So you get a non-traditional kind of history, and a kind that works very well.This is a personal work, not something that is dry and researched in dusty library stacks.Tim does, however, do a lot of research--going back to the places and people that had impacts on Bill Porteous' life.

Tim Bazzett's autobiographical works describe growing up in a rural area of Michigan (he was born in 1944) where indoor plumbing was more a luxury for city folk (which Tim became).Love, War, & Polio goes back to Bill Porteous' life, and that of his father as well.It gives a fine flavor of what was expected of young men in small-town America in the 1920's.Bill's father never went to high school (like most young men in the area) but Bill went to Michigan State, where he (like all male students) was in the ROTC.He met his future wife Mable there, but WW II broke out and it was off to war.Bill never saw combat, and contracted polio in California.Mable, now his wife, joined him.I'm a couple of years older than Tim, and I well remember the worry about polio, and the relief when the Salk vaccine became available in 1955.Municipal swimming pools were, in ways, life-endangering lures up to then.Bazzett describes the very long recovery and rehabilitation, starting with the iron lung.Someone less determined than Bill might not have made it through.

Bill is still living when the book was written, but suffers from post-polio syndrome.There are people I know who have this--the muscles get weaker and weaker--with one person I know, 65-70 years after they were stricken with polio as a boy.This is a powerful tale, related with care and affection by a fine storyteller. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Guide To Living With Post-Polio
This is probably the most comprehensive, easily understood treatise on the causes and effects of post-polio syndrome

Managing Post-Polio: A Guide to Living and Aging Well With Post-Polio Syndrome
I believe this book mostly helped in encouraging me.Sometimes I think I'm going nuts or imagening symptoms, but seeing them in print helped tremendously. ... Read more

Product Description
Jonas Salk's polio vaccine has taken on an almost legendary quality as a medical miracle, for it largely eradicated one of the most feared diseases of the 20th century. But the story of the vaccine has a dark side, one that has never been fully told before...

Between 1954 and 1963, close to 98 million Americans received polio vaccinations contaminated with a carcinogenic monkey virus, now known as SV40. A concerted government effort downplayed the incident, and it was generally accepted that although oncogenic to laboratory animals, SV40 was harmless to humans.

But now SV40 in showing up in human cancers, and prominent researchers are demanding a serious public health response to this forgotten polio vaccine contaminant. A gripping medical detective story, The Virus and the Vaccine raises major questions about vaccine policy.
Amazon.com Review
Past tragedies caused by "miracle drugs" have taught the public to approach cures with caution, and vaccines, in particular, have come under public scrutiny. In The Virus and the Vaccine, journalists Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher uncover the true tale of the polio vaccine and its past and present dangers. Like many medical detective stories before it, this book starts with a chilling anecdote, then flashes back to slowly set the stage for disaster. Baby boomers who only know Jonas Salk and his virus-fighting colleagues as heroes will be disturbed at how some of them downplayed concerns about a monkey virus called SV40 that was present in the polio vaccine. The links between SV40 and human cancer took a long time to define, and breakthroughs in molecular biology made the job more realistic in later decades. Nevertheless, Bookchin and Schumacher argue that a biased scientific bureaucracy in combination with a desperate public and money-hungry pharmaceutical!companies fostered the use of a vaccine that may have increased cancer risk. "The vast majority of baby boomers--almost all of whom received polio vaccine in the late 1950s and early 1960s--have potentially been exposed to the virus," they write. But baby boomers aren't the only ones at risk. The authors reveal that Lederle Laboratories continued to produce potentially contaminated oral polio vaccines well into the 1990s. Although the authors point fingers of blame at some specific targets, they carefully balance their accusations with reminders that public demands for cures must be balanced with careful assessment of new medical treatments. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

truth about polio vaccine
If we really want to protect our families, we have to educate ourselves. This book provides information to open our eyes to the truth about vaccines and the process to produce them. Doctors are oblivious to what they are doing to their patients and how they are actually causing harm. Parents, it is time to wake up to the harm being caused by the contaminates and toxins in vaccines.

Genuine and truthful!
In The Virus and the Vaccine we learn the truth behind some vaccine and other laboratory produced chemical soups that they will pump into our bodies.The author has done a great service in writing this book, and is very brave to continue to speak out in public about it.Reading her book will open your eyes and help you see where viruses come from.She speaks about vaccinations and how they are hurting our kids, but there is much more of a long history of death and illness caused by vaccination - this have been going on since they started.Reading her book will start you thinking, but there are three other books on the subject are very important too.

The Poisoned Needle: Suppressed Facts about Vaccination
The Vaccination Myth: Courageous MD exposes the Vaccination Fraud!
Vaccination Horror: An anthology of important works on vaccination pseudoscience


Keep an open mind and read!

One of the best books on anti-vaccination
This fine work is among the top 10 books on this subject.It needs to be read by everyone who has any concern for their health, or their country.

This is one of the biggest cover-ups in history!

Also recommended:

The Poisoned Needle: Suppressed Facts about Vaccination

Vaccination Horror: An anthology of important works on vaccination pseudoscience

The Vaccination Myth: Courageous MD exposes the Vaccination Fraud!

two books interleaved together
the book is problematic, for it is really two different books on the same topic told from very different prespectives. this is a difficult thing to pull off, i dont think that the author's were successful, but i dont blame them for it, it maybe an impossible task.

the two perspectives are from a science viewpoint and from of socio-political one, the topic is the same, the polio vaccine and vaccination program. the organization is chronological and concentrates on people and their relationship to these issues.

imho, it really ought to be two books. the science is given a bit less time and depth that is necessary for people to understand the issues, for example, why did the govt reject the human cell line- unlike europe? this neglect is an issue because the political uses of science are an increased issue, like global warmth, stem cells etc. Without a good basis in the science, informed concerned citizens must simply trust the science. as the book points out, this is a big problem.

but the socio-political issue gets a bit shorted as well. mostly an issue of time, partly an issue of switching back and forth between the science and the politics.

despite these issues, it is a tremendously important topic and this book warrants a browse for anyone interested in the topic.

Polio vaccines caused cancers
That's one conclusion a reader may draw after finishing this excellently researched, painstakingly detailed, scientifically referenced gem of a book. (I did.)

If you've had the polio vaccine, or know anyone who has, or know anyone who
has brain, lung, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, or mesothelioma, or even just
want to read a world class piece of medical journalism, you must read
this book.

The authors should get an award for writing this....Wait, they did! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not Recommended
This book tells a sketchy story of Joan's past and present struggles with polio.Unfortunately, the book is so poorly written and badly edited that I would not recommend it to any reader. ... Read more

Product Description
Picturing Medical Progress from Pasteur to Polio offers a refreshing portrait of an era when the public excitedly anticipated medical progress and research breakthroughs. This unique study with 130 archival illustrations drawn from newspaper sketches, caricatures, comic books, Hollywood films, and LIFE magazine photography analyzes the relationship between mass media images and popular attitudes. Bert Hansen considers the impact these representations had on public attitudes and shows how media portrayal and popular support for medical research grew together and reinforced each other. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Bert Hansen's "Picturing Medical Progress from Pasteur to Polio:A History of Mass Media Images and Popular Attitudes in Americ
This enormously appealing book is filled with the excitement of new insights.
"Genius" and "Celebrity", labels rarely associated with each other, illuminate
and inspire the reader in Hansen's new book.
While brilliantly delivering exactly what the title states, his book additionally
reveals another journey; a history of women in medicine!
These outstanding and not so well known women, are the "Firsts"
in their capacities as well as achievements.Hansen mesmerizes the reader
describing the genius behind their deserved celebrity.Buy this book and read it today!

More Than a Picture Book!
More Than a Picture Book!

A lively book for media fans and science buffs, Picturing Medical Progress traces the way mass media covered medical discoveries.To illustrate his highly original theme, Hansen includes many striking illustrations.The writing is crisp and dramatic and the images are spectacular. A fun read! ... Read more