Franklin Roosevelt and Polio 

How Franklin D Roosevelt contracted Polio

The young man, Franklin Roosevelt, who ran laughing from the waves off Campobello Island that day in 1921, was a man who seemed to have everything. Franklin Roosevelt was handsome, athletic, and wealthy; he had started a promising political career and had already served as a State Senator and Assistant Secretary of the Navy; and his family name was one of the most prestigious in America: Roosevelt.

It was warm that August day in Campobello and Franklin Roosevelt had been indulging in his favorite pastime - sailing. From childhood Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a passion for anything that had to do with boats or the sea. This day, he fell from his boat into the ocean and although this was unusual, he cheerfully climbed aboard again. The rest of the day he felt chilled, but he thought little of it.

How Franklin D Roosevelt found out that he had contracted a disease

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt arose the next morning he felt uncommonly tired. Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought his usual remedy - a brisk swim in the waters of the Atlantic. When he was done, Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran across the shore and back to the family home. There, he picked up a stack of newspapers to read and settled in at his desk.

He wrote later: "I sat reading for a while, too tired to even dress. My left leg lagged...presently it refused to work, and then the other." By the third day after his swim, Franklin Delano Roosevelt couldn't even stand or move his legs and was suffering from severe pain. Soon, his back, arms, and legs became partially paralyzed, and he could no longer hold a pen. He said: "While the doctors were unanimous in telling me that the attack was very mild...I had, of course, the usual dark suspicion that they were just saying nice things to make me feel good."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt  was right. Franklin Roosevelt, at the age of 39, had been stricken with polio. Word spread quickly through the Democratic Party to which he belonged: Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's political career was over. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an invalid.

How President Franklin Delano Roosevelt recovered from Polio and became the legendary US President

What his friends and the politicians hadn't reckoned on was that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was not a man to give up. And perhaps his hardest and greatest fight of all, was his fight against polio. His own mother urged him to retire but instead Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched a campaign of exercise, swimming, and therapy that helped him regain the use of his arms, hands, and back. Then Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to learn to walk again. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used gymnasium equipment and he swam daily, saying "The water put me where I am, and the water has to bring me back." As he practiced walking, he had several bad falls but he kept on trying. He also spent several months at a spa in Warm Springs, Georgia, because many polio victims had been helped by the warm mineral waters there. 

Only Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's legs refused to respond to therapy, surgery, and his own fierce will. Although they improved a little, for the rest of his life he couldn't walk without the use of braces, crutches, or a cane. 

During his fight with polio, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was confined to bed for two years. And during those two years Franklin Roosevelt was transformed. Far from breaking him, suffering lifted him to a new stature. Franklin Delano Roosevelt utterly conquered personal fear. Franklin Delano Roosevelt gained new depth and compassion. As a friend of Roosevelt's said: "His thoughts expanded; his horizons widened. He thought of others who were afflicted and in want...Lying there, he grew bigger day by day."

One of the first things Franklin Delano Roosevelt did was to buy the spa at Warm Springs, and the land around it, so he could expand and make it more accessible to people. When he saw how many patients could barely afford the cost of polio treatments, he began a foundation to help them, a foundation that years later financed Jonas Salk in his discovery of a polio vaccine.