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The breath of life: medical technology and the careers of people with post‐respiratory poliomyelitis
Author(s) -
Locker David,
Kaufert Joseph
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.ep11340107
Subject(s) - poliomyelitis , ideology , everyday life , health technology , variety (cybernetics) , quality of life (healthcare) , respiratory system , medicine , psychology , business , political science , nursing , economic growth , health care , pediatrics , economics , psychiatry , computer science , politics , artificial intelligence , law
This paper examines the impact of medical technology on the careers of people with post‐polio respiratory disability. The data have been taken from multiple in‐depth interviews with ten people who contracted polio during the epidemics of the early 1950s, all of whom used or had used a variety of methods of mechanical respiratory support. It focuses on ideologies of disability and the adoption of technology, the management of respiratory insufficiency and strategies of‘trading off whereby the benefits of technology are maximized and the costs minimized. While technology made an enormous contribution to the quality of life of these people, the problems it created transformed both their experience of the illness and the character of their everyday existence.