Poliomyelitis changed my life and robbed me of options open to others

If you are struggling with a decision about whether to vaccinate your child for an infectious disease, I urge you to read my story.

I was 7 when I contracted polio in 1954. No one knows how. I was a seemingly isolated case in our suburban community. I received immediate and excellent care and had the support of a strong mother, father and extended family and friends. Eventually, I made a good recovery. But, it was a long and sometimes painful struggle involving years of physical therapy, multiple surgeries, and watching others take for granted basic activities that were now denied to me.

Don’t get me wrong. My life has been rich … I have enjoyed friendships, been blessed with a loving husband, raised a family, had a career, traveled worldwide, and nurtured many interests. And, despite the limitations I lived with, I always had the attitude that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Others were always by my side offering support, but muscle weakness left by my childhood polio infection remained and is now exacerbated by age. Because of post-polio syndrome, I now wear two leg braces and walk with crutches.

My life remains rich, but I wonder how we have come to a time where people resist the factual advice of the scientific community and refuse known means to contain another deadly disease — COVID-19 — wrongly maintaining that it is their constitutional right and recklessly endangering not only themselves, but everyone around them. Living a life shaped by a childhood infection, to me, their decisions seem foolish, selfish, and deadly wrong.

Although I managed to overcome many barriers and have always had support, there is no doubt that poliomyelitis changed my life and robbed me of options open to others. The bottom line is that while one can survive a vaccine-preventable disease, it can have lasting impacts throughout life, affecting not only the survivor but also their family. The difference between me and children of today is that my parents had no choice. There was no vaccine for polio when I contracted it. Would parents today willingly choose to limit their children’s lives, or risk their deaths? Sadly, from my experience, by rejecting proven and safe vaccines that protect against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), COVID-19, and, yes, polio, that is exactly the gamble they are choosing to take.

In 2023, Cami shared her experience with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Check out “A polio survivor shares her story."