Medicine: The Man in the Iron Lung

The best-known polio paralytic in the U.S. was rounding out his tenth year in an iron lung. Jovial, 35-year-old Fred B. Snite Jr. had set a record: no other infantile paralysis victim in like case has survived more than a year. Last week, attended by his pretty wife Teresa and his three pretty little daughters (Pinkie, 6; Katherine, 3; Mary, 1), he was trundled onto a special railroad car in Chicago for his annual winter trip to Miami Beach, Fla. (see cut).

In doctors’ language, Fred was doing nicely. Though his 900-lb. iron lung still looked like his permanent home, his life in most other respects was almost normal. Now down to one physical therapist and two nurses (from a high of six), he gets out of his lung for three to seven hours each day, sits up in a light respirator, even “walks” a bit in a birdcage-like contraption.

When in Chicago, he goes to night football games (his big lung is parked in a corner of the field and he looks on through his mirror). In Miami he is a constant spectator (and bettor) at jai alai games. His favorite sport: bridge, which he plays almost every night with his wife and friends. An expert, with a rating of three master points, he plans to compete in the national championships in Florida this winter.

Says his wife, when people ask about his prospects for improvement: “We don’t even think about it. Fred is quite happy as he is.”