Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola has vivid memories of his experience surviving polio.
In interview with Deadline regarding his new film “Megalopolis,” Coppola, who was diagnosed with polio as a child around the age of 9, recalled the quick onset of the disease.
Polio mostly affects children under 5 years old and can cause irreversible paralysis and even death. It is highly infectious and there is no cure; it can only be prevented by immunization, according to the WHO. Development and wide-scale distribution of a vaccine in 1955 largely eradicated the disease over time. Recent vaccine skepticism, however, has sparked concerns polio outbreaks could return more frequently if people choose not to get vaccinated.
Coppola, now 85, painted a bleak picture of his time in a polio ward.
Iron lungs, as they were known, are respirators that assisted polio patients with breathing.
Coppola struggled with the disease, he said.
The famed director credits his father, composer Carmine Coppola, with saving him as the elder Coppola sought out various treatments in order to help his son.
He also hailed the developers of the vaccine.
