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Well, imagine spending almost your entire life in one room.

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In Brazil, Shasta Darlington met two polio patients who have been bedbound in a hospital ward for most of their lives,

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but as she discovered their physical confinement has not limited their imagination.

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Paulo Henrique Machado shares some of his most cherished memories,

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images of a life spent here in this room, mostly confined to his bed for 43 years.

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Paulo Henrique is paralyzed from the waist down. He breathes with the help of a respirator.

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As an infant, he contracted polio and was sent to live in the hospital,

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some of those years in the dreaded iron lung like these.

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It was the 1970s before vaccines eradicated polio in Brazil.

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That's Pedro. Back then, it was him and me. We were very close. He was my best friend.

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Children with serious infections were sent to the Clinicas Hospital in Sao Paulo with little hope of survival.

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There were nine of them here with Paulo Henrique.

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His mother had died two days after he was born. The rest of his family soon stopped coming to see him.

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The polio ward was his home, the staff and fellow patients his family.

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It was a wonderful time. I'll never forget it.

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Even though most of our friends are no longer with us, I never stopped dreaming about them.

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Over the years, many died, including his best friend Pedro.

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It was December 26, the day after Christmas.

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Everything I'd planned with my friend, life, didn't have the same meaning.

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But it made me stronger.

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Two people survived, Paulo Henrique and his lifelong friend and roommate, Eliana Zagui.

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We are like brother and sister and we look after each other.

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Eliana suffered paralysis caused by polio when she was a baby.

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She has lived in the hospital for 38 years.

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I've been here since I was one year and nine months old.

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I learned to write, to paint, to use a cell phone, a computer, things I like.

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They were both encouraged to push beyond their physical limitations.

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Eliana discovered painting, patiently dabbing at the canvas with a brush taped to a tongue depressor.

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The wear and tear on her teeth meant she had to limit herself, but she hasn't stopped.

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Paulo Henrique trained as a computer animator and is now working on a cartoon about his life with the help of crowd funding.

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Dr. Nuno da Silva has worked in the ICU since 1988.

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He says Paulo Henrique and Eliana are inspirations.

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We've had young patients that we've taken to their room.

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They're examples to show that it isn't the end of the world.

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Paulo Henrique's biggest passions are movies and video games, opportunities to escape his own world.

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I like to live outside my reality.

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To get out of reality I play games.

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In the games, I can go where I want without suffering pain.

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He tells us that soon video games are going to take him out into the real world,

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a rare trip outside the hospital walls to visit a video game convention, a trip we don't want to miss.