Polio Survivors Race Against the Clock

By Leigh Zaleski, York Daily Record

Emanuel Poznanski had 21 surgeries in the first 16 years of his life.

He received muscle transplants and joint fusions, each procedure followed by months of recovery.

During one of his last surgeries, a doctor broke his left leg — which was an inch and a half longer than his right — in an effort to decrease the difference.

Poznanski, 62, was born in Israel, where he contracted paralytic polio when he was 4 months old. He said his mother rushed him on a plane to the U.S. to save his life. She took him to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and then to Children’s Hospital Boston.

In his earliest memories, hospitals were his home. There, he lived and received most of his early education.

“I never realized I was handicapped,” Poznanski said.

He’s thankful for that.

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