Polio survivor uses triathlons to spread awareness

At the age of 71, Div Louw of Rynfield did not think he would be the winner of multiple gold medals, nor did the medical fraternity predict that the two-time polio survivor would walk, much less run across finish lines.

In 1955, at the age of four, Louw’s life took an unpredictable turn which would see him miraculously recover from a debilitating disease twice and spend his golden years pursuing sporting records while sharing his story to raise awareness.

Growing up in Airfield, Louw was often heard running imaginary races against legendary Jan Brand.

“I was busy with one of my epic races when something in my chest felt wrong, almost like a dripping tap,” said Louw.

“I ran to my mom, who noticed that my heart was beating irregularly. Hours later, I was admitted to the former Boksburg-Benoni Hospital’s isolation ICU with only a 2% chance of survival.”

Louw had contracted both spinal and bulbar polio, the latter destroys neurons causing respiratory or cardiac failure.

“For the next six months, I would only be able to communicate with my parents through a peppermint green phone. I was paralysed from below my shoulders,” he said.

Following his discharge from the hospital, Louw’s father, a local magistrate, surprised him with a fire truck pedal car.

Doctors recommended that he undergoes extensive surgery on his legs which would see both his legs placed in casts. If successful, it would mean that he would be a cripple. However, with his recovery determined to be at 2%, Louw would have been wheelchair-bound.

“My dad encouraged me to ride my fire truck and before long I was riding a bicycle. I was an active child again with very few signs of disability,” he said.

In his early 30s, after playing a game of squash, the familiar dripping feeling returned to his chest and Louw was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome.

“The prognosis was bad and my wife, Mariana, and I were told that we must prepare as I would be wheelchair-bound in months,” he said.

During a routine neurological check-up in 2018 Louw was once again cautioned that, although he had enjoyed a wondrous recovery, his childhood foe will soon rob him of his mobility.

In preparation for a life in a wheelchair, Louw became active to shed some weight.

“If I was going to transfer myself from one surface to a wheelchair, I needed to be lighter and have more upper-body strength,” he said.

“I was jogging, cycling and swimming and before I knew it, I started participating in triathlons.”

Louw is a classified PTS-3 triathlon athlete according to Paralympic criteria.

He has over the past three years participated in Gauteng, South African and African championships, claiming gold.

In September Louw will be participating in the Africa Continental Championships in Morocco.

If successful in finishing his race in under two hours, Louw will qualify for the Paralympics.

Given Rotary International’s long-standing fight against polio, Louw was recently inducted as a member of the Rotary Club of Benoni.

He hopes to use this platform to be able to advocate for polio vaccination.

Facts about Polio:
Cases of polio have largely been eradicated from society. Through Rotary International’s extensive work over the past 35 years as a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in partnerships with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds vaccines, 99.9% of the disease was wiped out.

However, cases of polio are on the rise again, due to communities becoming reluctant to participate in vaccination programmes.

As of February 1, there are 13 confirmed cases in Mozambique, one in Malawi, as well as New York and the virus was detected in the UK water systems resulting in a national vaccination campaign for all children up to the age of nine.

All confirmed cases affect unvaccinated individuals.

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under five.
The virus is transmitted by person-to-person contact, mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle such as contaminated water or food. There are three types of polio infections:

Subclinical
This type of polio does not experience any symptoms as this does not affect the central nervous system – the brain and spinal cord. Ninety-five percent of polio cases identified are usually subclinical.

Non-paralytic
Affects the central nervous system, but does not result in paralysis.

Paralytic
This is the most serious and rarest form of polio as it results in full or partial paralysis in the patient.

Three types of paralytic polio are:
• Spinal Polio (affects the spine)
• Bulbar Polio (affects the brainstem)
• Bulbospinal Polio (affects the spine and brainstem)

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