In the summer of 1916, it seemed as if there would never be enough hospitals to house the numerous children that were taken ill. Doctors had different ideas of what these children were suffering from. Some thought it might be the early stages of undiscovered cancers; while others believed that it was just the common flu. After a few weeks in the hospital, the mild headaches and chills that the children were experiencing, lead to complete paralysis; soon after paralysis, death came quickly. Scientists referred to it as Poliomyelitis, which is inflammation of the anterior spinal cord; but the public soon came to know it as something else. They knew it as the horrible disease that took away their children and their grandparents; they knew it as the disease that broke America's heart.

By mid August, there were more than nine thousand cases of Polio reported by the mid-Atlantic...