26.Take a deep breath.

Key words: Cuirass Respirator, Guinness Bk of Records, Harvard Uni., John Prestwich, London Hospitals, M.V. Herdsman, Texas (Corpus Christi), Ventilators (Drinker and Emerson)

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It’s difficult to say whether or not the Merchant Navy ship “the M.V.Herdsman” ever sailed up the Thames past Long Reach Hospital, but shortly after this particular vessel docked in Corpus Christi harbour on 24th November 1955 a story began to unfold that was to last another 51 years and which would put the achievement of a very brave patient into the Guinness Book of Records.

This was the ship’s final port of call and the baby of the crew, a certain John Prestwich, was looking forward to sailing back to England to be reunited with his family for Christmas. Coincidentally, he was also going to be celebrating his 17th birthday whilst the ship was docked in Corpus Christi and one can only imagine that he was really excited about that too.

Sadly however he collapsed onboard and following his transfer to a nearby hospital he was diagnosed as having bulbar polio. By the time the diagnosis was confirmed he was paralysed from the neck downwards unable to breath or cough. Thus when he finally did arrive back in England - three months later - via Heathrow Airport it was in what someone has referred to as "a coffin on legs".

John was initially admitted to the “fever ward” of the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead where he continued to be nursed in his iron lung.

“Iron lungs” are in fact negative pressure ventilators and although there are still a few patients using these contraptions in their homes today - finding that they actually work better than their modern replacements - they have for the most part been replaced by positive pressure ventilators that blow air into patients’ lungs by via an intubation tube.

I can remember the one remaining female patient at Joyce Green Hospital in the mid 60s who was being nursed in an “Emerson-type” iron lung but perhaps some of you reading this entry will remember this particular lady, Gwen, and her ventilated daily life much more than I do ?
As for the creator of her type of ventilator John (or “Jack” as he was known) H. Emerson left his school in New York State without any educational certificates whatsoever and although all previous Emerson family teenagers had traditionally gone to Harvard University, Jack freely admitted that he only got in to this top University as "a floor sweeper in the Physics Lab" because of having family connections.

Whilst not at all academically-inclined Jack was nonetheless a very clever man and “an inveterate tinkerer” who - amongst many other devices - designed the quieter, more efficient iron lung of the type used at Joyce Green. Emerson respirators were, it seems, it was not only cheaper than the existing Drinker type but the they could also be hand-pumped should the electricity supply ever fail, something the must have been of comfort to patients and staff alike during the industrial unrest in the U.K. during the early 1970s ?

John Prestwich, the lad who contracted polio on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, eventually progressed - as did many other polio victims - to using a Cuirass shell respirator. These take the form of an airtight dome-shaped fibreglass shell that is strapped in place over the chest and abdomen which is connected by a length of hose to a pump. They work on the same alternating-pressure principle as the iron lung but because this alternative was much lighter and more portable it allowed John (and so many others) to be nursed in bed and/or in a wheelchair.

As a young man John spent his first 7 years in an Emerson ‘lung’ during his 16 year period of hospitalisation but according to his website (www.johnprestwich.btinternet.co.uk) he went on live a satisfying life at home under the supervision of his personal Occupational Therapist (Yes, he married his O.T.), going to (or when necessary - being admitted to) the Respiratory Unit of St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

John Prestwich went on to became an inspirational “personality”. He was awarded an M.B.E. in 1994 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and when he died in 2006 he held the Guinness Book of Records world title for being the longest-ever mechanical respirator user.

For 25 years, with the help of his wife and thanks too to a specially modified wheelchair/bed - complete with respirator - he had been able to remain very independent at home. He had a specially converted 'minibus' for outings and John had mastered a wide range of activities via whistled codes and the help of some highly adapted computer ware.

One can’t help but be pleased that John Prestwich led such a satisfying and rewarding life, nonetheless I sometimes think about the richness of life which Gwen in Joyce Green Hospital, and thousands of others elsewhere, missed.