Robert Emmett

~~I contracted polio at the age of nine in 1952…a few years before the vaccine. Since then I have been dealing with its after-affects and later with Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS). I went from a polio victim with about seventy-percent of my muscle architecture destroyed, as a result of the polio virus, to a competitive tennis player in fifteen arduous and challenging years. Besides my physical being, my whole make-up changed resulting in a driven and highly achieving person. I graduated in 1971 from graduate school with a PhD in Chemistry. Using my new found and crafted personality and my scientific skills, I became a leader in my business and community. During this time I went through several struggles…many painful operations and countless hours of physical therapy. Having polio was also looked upon as a defect that marked you to some extent. You could do your best and look your best but at times you were like an invisible man…endeavoring to make yourself heard and really seen.
 
Since I retired in 2001, PPS, along with lingering polio affects, has had a negative impact upon me. Nonetheless, I have funneled my energies to other pursuits (e.g. my memoir and grandchildren) I almost died a result of a staph infection in 2011…which was engendered by a fall. My contribution to eradicating polio is my life laid bare. After reading my life story no parent, spouse, doctor, family member, friend, culture or organization should not advocate taking the vaccine. In 1952 I was exposed to the winds of fate…fate should not be on the docket now. Since I had polio just before the vaccine I am one of the last members of polio victims in the USA. The lesson should be clear…don’t become another last member…end it now.

I recently published a book detailing my experience with polio and PPS. It is entitled Three Quick Steps, authored and published by me (Robert Emmett). This tells you why, with a lifetime of examples, to take the vaccine. It is not a meant to be ‘downer’…rather a balanced and meaningful message.

Ending polio is not something I will probably see. But it is in our grasp…if our education and determination is promulgated throughout the world. Nothing could be more evocative for the last polio victims that we did finish with a victory.