SALT LAKE CITY — Fran Broadhead uses only one floor of her three-story home. Most of it is adorned with handrails to keep her from falling. Low-lying shelves help her reach the things she needs.
It's a lot different than when she bought the home. But that was before post-polio syndrome set in. Now she just takes things one day at a time.
Broadhead, 78, is one of about 750,000 seniors in America experiencing the aftershocks of a disease that doctors and patients knew very little about when it first emerged. And although polio has been mostly eradicated in the U.S., it still poses a health threat in certain locations in the world and among those not vaccinated.
In the hopes of learning more about the disease and its aftereffects, Becky Lloyd, a researcher with the University of Utah's American West Center, is collecting the stories of dozens of polio survivors like Broadhead. The study could help doctors in other parts of the world still battling the disease, and researchers here in the United States facing new epidemics.
"When it first broke out, they didn't know what caused it or really how to treat it," Lloyd said.
During one particularly virulent six-week period in 1955, more than 200 cases were reported in Utah.
"Once the polio was over, we never talked about it," Broadhead said. Her mother died long before Broadhead started developing post-polio symptoms, leaving her little information about the illness she contracted at age 6.
"The only visual memory I have is of my parents tapping on the glass window of my hospital room," she said.
"Everybody was terrified of polio because it had such disastrous effects on people," said Ron Hanson, a former Zions Bank executive who also contracted the disease at age 6.
After several operations and nine months at a California hospital, Hanson was fitted with a leg brace that he wore until the eighth grade, when he threw it in the garbage. For most of his life, "people couldn't detect that I had a limp."
But when Hanson, 78, wore out his "good leg" and required knee-replacement surgery, the resulting hydro-therapy, he believes, overworked the leg afflicted with polio, putting him back into a brace that he's been wearing since 1999.
It took nearly 50 years for Broadhead to feel any symptoms of post-polio
Symptoms of the syndrome, which was first recognized in the 1980s and affects an estimated 60 percent of polio survivors, include unaccustomed fatigue, muscle weakness and atrophy as victims tend to age faster physically.
"My leg feels like it's 106," Hanson said.
For her part, Broadhead says she's learned to adapt. She carries stiff pillows that help to raise the height of chairs, making it easier to stand, with her everywhere she goes.
The daily movements that involve getting dressed, folding laundry and preparing food completely tire her out. "I can't even open a pickle jar anymore," she said.
Lloyd has already interviewed more than a dozen survivors. She hopes to obtain additional grant funding to carry the project further, perhaps even making it a regional or nationwide collection. Upon compilation, the materials will be available through Special Collections at the U.'s Marriott Library.
"This is a timely project," said American West Center director Matthew Basso. "Typical polio survivors are now reaching their 60s and 70s. It's important to record this information while we still can."
Those interested in the University of Utah research project can call 801-581-7611 for more information or e-mail becky.lloyd@awc.utah.edu.
e-mail: wleonard@desnews.com