Martha Lillard, last known U.S. iron lung polio survivor, dies at 78

The sister of the last known polio patient in the US to use the life-saving machine spoke to the BBC about her sister's life.

Hours each day in an iron lung kept her breathing, her will to live kept her alive  BBCMartha Lillard, last known US polio survivor using iron lung, dies aged 78  The GuardianOklahoma woman, the last American in an iron lung, dies at 78  KFOR.comLast U.S. Polio Survivor in an Iron Lung Dies After the Machine Began to Break Down and No One Could Repair It  YahooLast Polio Patient Using Iron Lung Passes Away in Oklahoma  respiratory-therapy.com

Martha Lillard contracted polio at age five and relied on an iron lung to breathe, but COVID-19 left her dependent on the machine nearly 24 hours a day.

Martha Lillard rests in her iron lung in February (Picture: Cindy McVey via AP) One of the last polio survivors to live inside an iron lung has died at the age of 78 after the machine became too old to repair. Martha Ann Lillard died on June 26 after spending more than 70 years living inside the 1940s device. She was diagnosed with polio on her fifth birthday in 1953. Lillard, of Shawnee, Oklahoma, told KFOR last month: ‘I woke up, and it was sunny outside, and I started to sit up, and my neck was killing me. ‘I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow.’ She fell unconscious four days later and was unable to breathe or move. ‘They usually didn’t like to put children in because they fought it, but I didn’t,’ she said.  Martha Ann Lillard died on June 26 after spending more than 70 years living inside the 1940s device (Picture: Facebook/Martha Lillard) Two years later, a vaccine was created, which eradicated polio. Iron lungs are airtight metal tanks that generate negative pressure to force the lungs to expand. When she was at her sickest, Lillard was required to live in the lung for 23 hours a day, and used her one hour of free time to rehabilitate her paralyzed limbs. She was able to live a relatively normal life, only needing to be in the lung for about nine hours a day, until she contracted Covid-19 twice as well as shingles. Martha Ann Lillard, the last U.S. polio patient who used an iron lung to survive (Picture: Wikipedia) She took high school classes over the phone, and never attended prom as she spent her hour of free time in school. In the months leading up to her death, she needed to be in the iron lung 24 hours a day. Her iron lung also began to slowly break down, and the pieces were too old to replace. At one point a tornado knocked out her power and her husband Baha Seleh was forced to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Lillard until she received further aid. Her sister, Cindy McVey, said: ‘Some of the parts are from the 1940s, and they’re hard to locate. ‘We have a spare motor, but we don’t have anyone to put it back in if we needed it.’ A GoFundMe fundraiser to honor Lillard’s legacy after her death said: ‘She was incredibly creative, painting, writing poems, and composing music for the left hand piano. ‘Even as post-polio syndrome continued to affect her, she maintained a wonderful fighting attitude, making the most of what she had left and enjoying life as much as she could.’ Comment now Comments Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source

Martha Ann Lillard, 78, died on June 26 having spent more than seventy years relying on the device.

Martha Ann Lillard, the last known U.S. polio survivor who relied on an iron lung, has died at age 78. Learn about her decades-long battle with the disease, the historic breathing machine that sustained her life, and the legacy she leaves behind.