Last U.S. Polio Survivor in an Iron Lung Dies After the Machine Started to Break Down and They Couldn’t Find Anyone to Repair It

People ^ | July 10, 2026 | Cara Lynn Shultz

[Red Badger]

Martha Ann Lillard, the last U.S. polio patient who used an iron lung to survive, has died at age 78.

The Shawnee, Okla., resident first experienced symptoms of the disease on her fifth birthday in 1953, she told KFOR 8 days before her death. “I woke up and it was sunny outside, and I started to sit up, and my neck was killing me,” she said. “I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow.”

“After four days, I went unconscious. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move my arms or legs,” she explains. Lillard had contracted polio — just two years before a vaccine would be introduced that would help eliminate cases of the devastating disease in the U.S.

At the time, an iron lung — a full-body ventilator — was the go-to treatment for polio patients. “They usually didn’t like to put children in because [children] fought it, but I didn’t,” Lillard said. “I liked it. It felt good to breathe.”

Polio, which is caused by the extremely contagious poliovirus, is “a crippling and potentially deadly disease that affects the nervous system,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It lives in the feces of an infected person, but can also be spread via eating or drinking food that’s been contaminated. Although most people who contract polio do not exhibit symptoms — or if they do, they experience flu-like fevers, tiredness, nausea, headache, nasal congestion, and sore throat — the CDC says 1 in 200 to 1 in 2,000 people will develop paralysis. It was famously the case with U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who needed a wheelchair after he contracted the disease.

[jimtorr]

I grew up with a kid who had polio. It just affected his legs, though. He got by with big ‘ol steel leg braces, just like the young Forest Gump.

[PghBaldy]

I bet my brother, or someone like him, could have fixed it. He was born with an ability to fix anything and everything he encountered. He would take everything apart, then re-assemble them.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

I remember lining up for sugar cubes with a drop of the polio vaccine in them. I’m thankful that I was able to get it.

Younger folks may not understand, but prior to the mid-1950’s, polio was a major issue. By 1977 there were still more than a quarter million people in the United States at least partially paralyzed by polio.

[frank ballenger]

As a child in that era I was horrified to see tv shows and news shows with iron lung patients helpless like that.

And that cruel surprise that after surviving back then, they could get “post polio syndrome” as a punishment for living longer.

I am truly grateful for the polio vaccine in time to protect me. Dr. Jonas Salk was refused entrance to most NY area medical schools because they refused Jews or had a tiny quota limit on Jews. He finally found one, studied, later researched and was a principal developer of the vaccine.

[Equine1952]

Godspeed Martha. Nobody knew how to fix the iron lung? That’s pretty bad. I guess they don’t teach that in college. Growing up in farm country in the 50’s/60’s time frame, I learned a lot besides what school taught me. Stuff broke down ya fixed it. Guess not anymore.

[frank ballenger]

Good post. Millions of parents had fear go through them that their children were going to public places and swimming pools that might expose them to polio. A lot of fear around then.

[Equine1952]

Yeah parents worried because they saw what it did to a War Time president I remember my mom frantically wanted sis and I to get the vaccine. Dad was a carpenter his big item was a tetanus shot. Stepping on a nail is a when not an if. Anytime I got a cut or scratch it was merthiolate. Crap burned like hell but you healed fast. Wish I could still get some.

[Dr. Sivana]

It was famously the case with U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who needed a wheelchair after he contracted the disease.

From claude.ai

However, there's a meaningful medical controversy worth knowing about. A 2003 retrospective analysis published in the Journal of Medical Biography by Dr. Armond Goldman and colleagues reexamined FDR's case using modern diagnostic criteria and concluded that his symptoms were more consistent with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) — an autoimmune disorder that attacks the peripheral nervous system — rather than poliomyelitis. Their reasoning centered on several details from the 1921 case:

The onset pattern (symmetric ascending paralysis, starting in the legs and moving upward) fits GBS more closely than typical polio presentation Facial paralysis and prolonged numbness/sensory disturbances, which occurred in FDR's case, are more characteristic of GBS than polio His age (39) was atypical for polio, which predominantly struck children and young adults, whereas GBS shows no such age bias The specific progression and recovery pattern described by contemporary physicians aligns better with GBS's known course

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“I remember lining up for sugar cubes with a drop of the polio vaccine in them. “

Ditto. Parents of kids were all scared to death about the disease. I never saw any fear in my parents; I’m sure they hid it well from us kids.

[Organic Panic]

Someone could have fixed it. I suspect the family either wants to sue someone or just wanted a clever story to explain the death of a 78 year old paralyzed woman.

[LegendHasIt]

I bet there are a lot of people who COULD have fixed it; they really are a very simple machine, invented more than 400 years ago.

But in these days of ambulance chasing lawyers and government licenseure enforcers, one would be foolish to try to do a repair, because chances are you would get sued for millions and /or thrown in jail for not having the proper permissions and credentials.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

I much preferred mercurochrome to merthiolate. The latter stung pretty badly on larger wounds.

[LegendHasIt]

Good point.

[Az Joe]

My cousin had it in the late ‘50s. We would visit her at her home. I was 4-6. I didnt understand much about it. She could walk with braces and crutches. She was just a nice, quiet girl.

Thinking of you tonight Margaret Mary. God bless you my dear.

[Equine1952]

What I had in the 50’s/60’s had mercury in it. The new stuff sucks but the polio vaccine, tetanus shot, and learning to swim were my folks top priorities. It was different times. Driving a tractor, then a truck and car yada, yada, yada. It wasn’t a hope you did it. It was you’ll get off your ass and do it. Seems funny now.

[packagingguy]

Too young for the epidemic but one of my friend’s mom couldn’t use her arm from polio. She was born in the 50’s.

[moviefan8]

RIP

Martha only wanted to use the machine that used parts from the 1940s. She didn’t want to use a modern respirator because couldn’t give her “what I needed to breathe”.

I would think a modern respirator would be better.

Sounds like my work. The two elevators at my work are from the early 1950s. They frequently break down and are out of service for long periods of time. It is hard to find parts. The building was built in the early 1950s so it is unlikely a new elevator will be installed.

[moviefan8]

The machine had parts from the 1940s and are hard to locate.

It is like the elevators at my work. The building and elevators are from the early 1950s. The elevators are out for long periods of time because it is hard to locate parts.

[cva66snipe]

My late wife born in 1950 was stricken in 1985 with sudden onset of at first with almost total paralysis within a couple hours. For over a week her arms were clutched to her chest. I rushed her to the ER when it hit her in a mall. She had walked in and sat down at the food court and when she tried to get up she fell to the floor. In the ER, ICU, and next next year or more they could not figure it out even the best Neurologist in Tennessee couldn't. They first said GB however her respiratory system was not affected. Then they about a year later said Transverse Myelitis. She had become a C/5 C/6 incomplete quadriplegic. Fair use of arms and hands, weak but functional, near normal feeling in all extremities, but no leg function.

A few years later she was being measured for her second motorized wheelchair and the PT doing it caught the problem by the measurements she was getting in limb lengths. They said it was consistent with Polio. It's believed as a toddler she likely had a milder case of it. However when she was 35 she was living under great stress, a 4' 10" woman weighing 90 lbs soaking wet working as a CNA lifting patients far more that her own weight. Her husband had abandoned her with two teen daughters and she was not eating right which weakened her and triggered Polio Round 2 in her body.

She was divorced when we met in 85 and we married in the hospital during her initial 6 month stay with her being given a 5 year or less survival time prognoses. We were married for a few months short of 30years when The Lord called her home from a bout on Pneumonia they could not cure due to contortion of her body partially blocking a lung not allowing them to get her fully suctioned.