It's not often that Tom Lyons talks about his experiences with polio.
"I've never really shared this story outside of my family before," the Newburyport resident and retired history teacher said moments before he opened up to members of the Newburyport Rotary Club at its weekly lunch at Glenn's Galley.
As the afternoon light streamed in, Lyons, seated in his wheelchair in the corner of the room, spoke about his ordeal, his bellowing voice carrying over the din of spoons stirring coffee and plates being cleared.
His presentation coincided with Polio Awareness Week, which is being observed by Rotary Clubs in District 7780, which includes Newburyport.
Lyons was 20 in October 1954 when he was infected with polio, a viral disease that can affect nerves and lead to partial or full paralysis. When the athletically built young adult who became a basketball, baseball and football star in high school in his hometown of Reading and later at Brown University in Rhode Island found himself riddled with pain, he knew something was wrong.
"I was taking my love, Eleanor, to the train station after a visit. As I walked away, I felt enormous pain in my back. I tried to walk, to run, and I fell. Next thing I knew, I was in the infirmary," he said.
A quick test with a reflex hammer on Lyons' right leg elicited no response, a sign of poliomyelitis. Commonly known as polio, the disease attacks the central nervous system, knocking out an individual's motor skills.
With his right leg and hip paralyzed, Lyons spent nine months in the hospital, first in an isolation unit at Providence's Charles V. Chapin Hospital for communicable diseases.
"I could feel as well as you all could; I just couldn't move," he said.
Lyons' diagnosis coincided with the worst, and last, years of Rhode Island's polio outbreaks in 1954 and 1955. Charles V. Chapin Hospital at the time became one large polio ward in the face of the epidemic. According to Lyons, there were 55,000 reported cases during the 1955 outbreak. A vaccine to immunize against the disease was developed later that year. But it wasn't until 40 years later, in 1994, that the Americas were declared free of the disease.
Polio spreads from person to person by direct contact with infected mucus or phlegm from the nose or mouth or with infected feces. The disease, which has three strains of varying potency, incubates for more than a week before the onset of symptoms, often allowing it to spread widely before being detected. Most people contracting the virus never knew, because they had no symptoms; others thought they just had a cold.
The virus can destroy nerve cells, causing muscles, then bones, to atrophy. Ultimately, it can leave arms and legs weak and brittle, often requiring the support of metal braces. When breathing muscles were attacked, patients were often treated with iron lungs, huge metal chambers that regulated breathing.
The mid-1950s' outbreak primarily targeted children.
"I remember one 4-year-old girl across the hall from me. She would sing in her iron lung, but could only do it when she was breathing out. You could hear her little voice, then a break as she took air in, then that voice again. It was haunting," Lyons said.
After a stay at Chapin, Lyons was transferred to Children's Hospital in Boston. He told Rotary members stories of his time spent in a warm-water pool doing exercises that restored a sense of movement and life to his body, and how he spent his nights with his legs in a cast and his feet strapped to a board, unable to turn over.
He recalled his roommates, John and Ronny, for whom he still feels affection, and how he maintained a sense of humor with late-night escapes to the streets of Boston and song sessions that helped pass the time. Eleanor and his father made regular visits to keep his spirits up.
Lyons was able to recover from his initial paralysis and was released from the hospital in July 1955. While he does not suffer from paralysis today, he often uses a wheelchair to make mobility easier and less painful.
Following his discharge, Lyons married Eleanor. The couple stayed in the Boston area while he attended Harvard University, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in history. Lyons spent his life teaching history, retiring from Phillips Academy in Andover in 1999. The Lyonses, who had four children and 11 grandchildren, now enjoy their retirement in Newburyport.
Lyons' story came at a perfect time. Rotary District 7780's Polio Awareness Week is aimed at raising awareness of polio and funds for the End Polio Now campaign. There are still 1,000 reported cases of polio worldwide, mainly in remote areas of Africa and Asia.
Rotary is the lead, private-sector partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and has contributed more than $900 million to combat the disease. The organization has also sent representatives overseas to help with immunizations and works closely with governments around the world to coordinate their efforts.
Tonight, Newburyport Rotary Club members will be attending the World Peace and Understanding Dinner in Portland, Maine, where an End Polio Now logo will be lit at Portland Airport. A donation to the lighting fund was made in Lyons' name, courtesy of Newburyport Rotary.
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