Itzhak Perlman – 'Absolutely Ridiculous'

Violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman lost the use of his legs as a young child. Now he's angry about the resurgence of the disease and that some people aren't getting vaccinated

- By Itzhak Perlman

I had polio in 1949 when I was 4 years old. The first polio vaccine wasn't issued until 1955, so I missed it by a few years. One morning, I got up and tried to stand, and I couldn't. I knew there was something wrong. At that time, my parents did not know there was a polio epidemic. Of course, after a couple of days, they discovered what was happening.

I only remember lying down and looking out the window at the sun. It was always the same view day in and day out. And at one point, doctors performed a spinal tap that was painful.

I was only in the hospital in Tel Aviv for a few weeks, after which my life completely changed. Before polio, I played with toys and I loved to ride a scooter and run around, but I don't actually remember my childhood before the illness. What changed is that I could no longer walk. I needed to go to the leg brace maker.

They measured for braces, and they also measured for special shoes that could be connected to the braces. And then, of course, I started to walk with crutches a totally different experience.

I do think it's easier to get used to change when you are young because you haven't had a lot of experiences. There wasn't much time that had passed when I had been able to walk.

I remember reacting to my illness without any bitterness, just as a life-changing event. I walked with leg braces, but I was lucky because polio did not affect my lungs or my arms. There were many children that had to be put in an iron lungs, whereas my life just started to go in a different direction from the one I had imagined. I joke now that I realized a career in competitive soccer and running was going to go badly.