AceShowbiz - In light of warnings about possible vaccine limitations under the second Donald Trump presidency, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola has spoken out about his harrowing experience with polio as a child.

In an interview, Coppola vividly recalled spending 10 days isolated in a hospital ward filled with "screaming kids" after contracting the highly contagious virus. He emphasized the severe consequences of polio, including respiratory paralysis requiring iron lungs and permanent paralysis.

Coppola's experience was particularly traumatic, as he watched children in agony, crying out for their parents. He admits to being more terrified for their plight than his own, as he was not in an iron lung.

Despite his physical recovery, Coppola remembers the psychological horror of the hospital ward. He recalls trying to stand up from bed and realizing he could no longer walk.

At the time, the prevalent treatment for polio was immobility theory, which involved paralyzing the affected individual to prevent further muscle damage. However, Coppola's father refused this approach and sought help from the March of Dimes.

Through the March of Dimes, the Coppola family was connected to a doctor who practiced the Sister Kenny system, developed by a self-trained nurse named Elizabeth Kenny. This method focused on reconditioning rather than immobilizing muscles.

An elderly nurse named Ms. Wilson visited Coppola four days a week to perform gentle exercises that gradually restored the movement in his left arm. Coppola attributes his current ability to walk to the Sister Kenny system, which he deems a revolutionary approach.

Coppola highlights the effectiveness of the polio vaccine, which eradicated the disease in the United States and worldwide, and expresses his dismay at the possibility of its rollback. He notes that the developers of the Salk vaccine, Dr. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, donated the patent to the public, unlike today's pharmaceutical companies that own vaccine patents.