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“Everyone just wants to protect their kids, but there was no polio vaccine when I was a child. I wish my parents had the choice to protect me."

Cathy Casares Reynolds got polio in 1954, when she was only 2 years old. Just a few years later, a vaccine for the disease had been developed and soon was being distributed in schools—too late to help her.

Polio is a virus that can cause paralysis or even death, famously associated with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but even those who survive it and recover, like Cathy, can suffer debilitating effects for the rest of their lives.

Eventually she learned she had post-polio syndrome, which presents as muscle weakness and pain 40 to 50 years after contracting the disease. She hopes her story will inspire others to take the opportunity she never had: to take a vaccine to prevent a devastating disease with potentially long-term effects.

Read more: https://patientsafetyj.com/index.php/patientsaf/article/view/struggle-with-polio

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