Dad's bout with polio
My dad, Carl F. Karst, had polio when he was in high school. The viral illness came with sudden force and disrupted his life for more than a month in late 1946.
We found a journal from high school where he relates his experience with polio, which he endured two years before this record.
Here are those pages.
From the early 1900s through the 1950s, polio affected tens of thousands of Americans annually during epidemic years, according to AI source Claude. Between 1937 and 1997, more than 450,000 Americans were diagnosed with paralytic polio, and studies suggest that for every paralytic case, there were 100 to 200 non-paralytic infections.
Dad mentions the hot packs he received at the Hutchinson Hospital, one treatment approach for polio before Jonas Salk's vaccine was approved in 1955.
My sister Catherine was named, at least in part, to honor and remember one of the Hutchinson nurses who helped Dad regain his health.
This journal offered a brief glimpse into the mind and emotions of a very mature, yet sensitive young man. It reflects the thoughts, and emotions of a young man wise and mature beyond his years. It displays his disciplined approach to a most difficult hardship. Once again proving that the ability to endure hardship will always manifest itself as a positive character trait. A trait which Major Karst displayed throughout his life and career.
I don’t know if I had ever read this journal Tom. Thanks for sharing. I somehow thought that he had to be in an iron lung for a while. This is very interesting personal account.