The man who has lived in hospital for 45 years – Paulo Henrique Machado

Paulo Henrique Machado has livedalmost his entire life in hospital. As a baby he suffered infantile paralysis brought on by polio, and he is still hooked up to an artificial respirator 24 hours a day.

But despite this, he has trained as a computer animator and is now creating a television series about his life.

“There was me, Eliana, Pedrinho, Anderson, Claudia, Luciana and Tania. They were here for a good length of time too, more than 10 years,” he says.

With the innocence of childhood, he never imagined that they would be parted. But by 1992, some of the children had begun to deteriorate – one by one, his friends began to die.

“It was difficult,” says Machado. “Each loss was like a dismembering, you know, physical… like a mutilation,” he says. “Now, there’s just two of us left – me and Eliana.”

Doctors don’t quite understand why the pair outlived their peers by so long, but now every day in the ward, Machado wakes up with his bed facing that of his remaining friend and lifelong neighbour, Eliana Zagui. He says their relationship is crucial. “Some people think we are like husband and wife, but we are more like brother and sister,” he says.

I opened the car door and saw the sea and thought ‘Wow! What is this!”

“Every day, when I wake up I have the certainty that my strength is over there – Eliana. And it’s reciprocated. I trust her and she trusts me.”

Despite this the two fight virtually every day, Machado says with a laugh. “I think that’s normal between brother and sisters or a couple. But it’s not an argument where one side feels offended, you end up reflecting and think, ‘OK, I forgive you’,” he says.

The danger of infection means that they have to live in hospital. Trips outside are rare but memorable, says Machado, who estimates that he has been outside of the hospital at least 50 times in total, more in recent years.

Advances in medical technology mean that going out involves less heavy equipment and less medical supervision – and as they have got older, Zagui and Machado are prepared to take more risks.