Carol Jean Masheter, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, March 2, 2010

Transcript (61 pages) of interview by Becky B. Lloyd with Carol Jean Masheter on March 2, 2010

Masheter (b. 1946) was born in Santa Monica, California. She discusses her family and childhood. She (along with her younger sister) contracted polio at age six while visiting relatives in Wichita, Kansas. Both girls were sent to a nearby hospital for spinal taps and were admitted. She remembers receiving intravenous horse serum and then becoming violently ill for a period of time. She describes receiving hot-pack therapy twice a day and remembers being burned by the hot blankets on a couple of occasions. She describes her experiences, activities and physical therapy in the hospital. After discharge, she returned home to California, where she continued home therapy. She wore corrective shoes to age 13 for what she heard described as "weakness" in her legs, although she was very physically active in a variety of activities. She has had no residual effects from polio. Masheter completed a baccalaureate degree in Chemistry at UCLA and later completed a PhD. She taught at the University of Utah for ten years and currently is employed with the Utah State Department of Health. In 2008, she summited Mount Everest, and was, at the time, the oldest US female to so do. She has no identifiable effects of post-polio syndrome. This interview is part of the Polio Oral History Project. Interviewer: Becky Lloyd