https://www.npr.org/2021/10/25/1047691984/decades-after-polio-martha-is-among-the-last-to-still-rely-on-an-iron-lung-to-br

Accessibility links

  * Skip to main content
  * Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

  * Open Navigation Menu
  * NPR logo
  * 
  * 
  * NPR Shop
  * 

Close Navigation Menu

  * Home
  * News Expand/collapse submenu for News
      + National
      + World
      + Politics
      + Business
      + Health
      + Science
      + Climate
      + Race
  * Arts & Life Expand/collapse submenu for Arts & Life
      + Books
      + Movies
      + Television
      + Pop Culture
      + Food
      + Art & Design
      + Performing Arts
      + Life Kit
  * Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music
      + #NowPlaying
      + Tiny Desk
      + All Songs Considered
      + Music News
      + Music Features
      + Live Sessions
  * Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows
    Daily
      + [morning-ed] Morning Edition
      + [we_otheren] Weekend Edition Saturday
      + [we_otheren] Weekend Edition Sunday
      + [all-things] All Things Considered
      + [fresh-air] Fresh Air
      + [up-first] Up First
    Featured
      + [bookofthed] NPR's Book of the Day
      + [wftt_cobra] Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz
      + [invisibili] Invisibilia
      + [ibam_artti] It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
      + More Podcasts & Shows
  * Search
  * 
  * NPR Shop

  * NPR Music NPR Music
  * #NowPlaying
  * Tiny Desk
  * All Songs Considered
  * Music News
  * Music Features
  * Live Sessions

  * About NPR
  * Diversity
  * Organization
  * Support
  * Careers
  * Connect
  * Press
  * Ethics

This polio survivor is one of the last still using an iron lung
ventilator Martha Lillard had just turned 5 years old when polio
incapacitated her. She still uses a form of the ventilator that saved
her life as a child -- though now she worries about replacement parts.
 
Special Series

Radio Diaries

Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Life

Decades after polio, Martha is among the last to still rely on an
iron lung to breathe

  * Facebook
  * Twitter
  * Flipboard
  * Email

October 25, 202110:42 AM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

Erin Kelly

Alissa Escarce

Decades after polio, Martha is among the last to still rely on an
iron lung to breathe

Listen * 8:00 8:00
Toggle more options

  * Download
  * Embed
    Embed [<iframe src="https:/] <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/
    player/embed/1047691984/1049092973" width="100%" height="290"
    frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  * Transcript

[martha-lil]
Enlarge this image

Martha Lillard needed a large respirator called an iron lung to
recover from polio, which she caught in 1953. She still uses a form
of the device at nights. Courtesy of Martha Lillard hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Martha Lillard

Martha Lillard needed a large respirator called an iron lung to
recover from polio, which she caught in 1953. She still uses a form
of the device at nights.

Courtesy of Martha Lillard

On June 8, 1953, Martha Lillard celebrated her fifth birthday with a
party at an amusement park in Oklahoma. A little over a week later,
she woke up with a sore throat and a pain in her neck. Her family
took her to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with polio.

She spent six months in the hospital, where she was put in a giant
metal tank -- a ventilator informally called an iron lung -- to help
her breathe. To this day, Lillard is one of the last people in the
U.S. who still depends on an iron lung to survive.

Polio is a potentially life-threatening disease, once among the
world's most feared. In the late 1940s, polio disabled an average of
35,000 people in the U.S. every year.

A polio vaccine became widely available in 1955, and millions of
Americans got vaccinated. Since 1979, no cases of polio have
originated in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The disease has been nearly eradicated -- the World
Health Organization documented only 175 cases of wild polio in 2019.
It remains endemic in only Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Although most people who contract polio will not have visible
symptoms, a severe case can infect the brain and spinal cord and
cause paralysis. Lillard's breathing muscles were weakened by the
disease, and she survived thanks to the iron lung.

[ap55081601]
Enlarge this image

Iron lung respirators are prepared in an emergency polio ward at a
Boston hospital in August 1955. AP hide caption

toggle caption
AP

Iron lung respirators are prepared in an emergency polio ward at a
Boston hospital in August 1955.

AP

The machines are giant ventilators about 7 feet long. Patients lie
inside with just their heads resting outside; a seal around the
patient's neck creates a vacuum. Bellows at the base of the device do
the work of a human diaphragm -- they create negative pressure so the
user's lungs fill with air, and positive pressure allowing the person
to exhale.

Wiping Out Polio: How The U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer

Shots - Health News

Wiping Out Polio: How The U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer

Defeating Polio, The Disease That Paralyzed America

History

Defeating Polio, The Disease That Paralyzed America

Sixty-eight years later, an iron lung is still keeping Lillard alive
-- she sleeps in it every night. While many people who had polio or
post-polio syndrome either weaned themselves off the machines or
switched to another form of ventilator, Lillard never did.

"I've tried all the forms of ventilation, and the iron lung is the
most efficient and the best and the most comfortable way," she told
Radio Diaries.

The antiquated machines are now more likely to be found in a museum
than in someone's home. In the 1990s, when her iron lung was breaking
down, she called hospitals and museums that might have had old ones
in storage. But they'd either thrown them away or didn't want to part
with their collection. She eventually bought one from a man in Utah --
the machine she still uses today.

The machines were once serviced by Philips Resperonic, but Lillard
says the assistance she received from the company was minimal. Once,
she says a technician was sent to service her machine and prepared to
leave before putting the machine back together.

Lillard has gotten stuck in the iron lung. She lost power when an ice
storm came through Oklahoma and her emergency generator didn't kick
on, leaving her trapped in the device without heat.

"It's like being buried alive almost, you know -- it's so scary,"
Lillard says. She tried to call 911, but the cell towers weren't
working. "I was having trouble breathing. And I remember saying out
loud to myself, 'I'm not going to die.' "

Lillard was eventually able to get a signal, but she remembers the
emergency responders had no idea what an iron lung was. Luckily, they
were able to get the generator going for her.

Wear on parts is her main issue now. The belts need to be replaced
every few weeks, the cot inside every six months, the motor every 12
years or so.

Her most immediate need is collars. The collars create the critical
airtight seal around the neck. Each one lasts only for a few months.
And she has bought all the back stock of collars from places that
don't produce them anymore.

[martha-lil]

Martha Lillard says she worries about running out of replacement
parts to make her iron lung respirator function properly. Courtesy of
Martha Lillard hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Martha Lillard

"That's the main thing I'm having a hard time with, because I try to
stretch out, make these collars last longer," Lillard says. "And when
they start deteriorating, it gets harder and harder to breathe as
they leak more."

She has only a handful of collars left. "I really am desperate," she
says. "That's the most scary thing in my life right now -- is not
finding anybody that can make those collars."

Today, Lillard spends much of her time alone. She paints, watches old
Hollywood movies and takes care of her beagles. She has been mostly
isolating throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing her sister, Cindy,
and her brother-in-law, Daryl, in the evenings.

Being affected by polio at such a young age has meant Lillard hasn't
been able to have all the experiences others have had. She attended
school from home for much of her childhood and couldn't participate
in most extracurricular activities -- she still remembers longing to
go camping with her siblings. She was not able to have children or
hold a steady job because of her physical limitations.

Although some of her life experiences were limited, Lillard thanks a
childhood friend named Karen Rapp for teaching her to appreciate
small things. Together, they observed ants and built little villages
of grass huts.

"There's much more to see if you really look for it," she says.

And she's grateful for the iron lung.

"It's what sustains me. It's what heals me. It's what allows me to
breathe the next day," Lillard says. "I look at it as a friend, as a
very dear friend."

This story was produced by Erin Kelly and Alissa Escarce of Radio
Diaries. It was edited by Deborah Shapiro, Benjamin Shapiro and Joe
Richman. Thanks also to Nellie Gilles, Mycah Hazel and Stephanie
Rodriguez. You can hear more stories like this one on the Radio
Diaries podcast.

  * Facebook
  * Twitter
  * Flipboard
  * Email

 
Special Series

Radio Diaries

Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Life

Read & Listen

  * Home
  * News
  * Arts & Life
  * Music
  * Podcasts
  * Programs

Connect

  * Newsletters
  * Facebook
  * Twitter
  * Instagram
  * Press
  * Contact & Help

About NPR

  * Overview
  * Diversity
  * Ethics
  * Finances
  * Public Editor
  * Corrections

Get Involved

  * Support Public Radio
  * Sponsor NPR
  * NPR Careers
  * NPR Shop
  * NPR Events
  * NPR Extra

  * Terms of Use
  * Privacy
  * Your Privacy Choices
  * Text Only
  * 

NPR thanks our sponsors

Become an NPR sponsor