Posted on 07/10/2026 8:39:55 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at people.com ...
In the 80s and 90s I worked with a guy that had polio as a youth. He was confined to a motorized wheelchair complete with a ventilator to help him breathe. His arms were paralyzed, but he had tremendous flexibility in his legs and used his feet to operate the wheelchair, type on a computer keyboard, eat his meals, and drive his specially configured van. He had an attendant at home, and slept in an iron lung.
So, are WE the people who put a man on the moon?
Could they have moved her to a Bennett breather?
“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.”
There are some REALLY GOOD mechanics in the country and likely some even better than myself. I agree, it could have been fixed. There’s more to this story.
I seem to recall reading of a guy who specialized in the iron lung only a few years ago. From what I saw any redneck engineer could ace it. They’re not high tech.
Article said she died from long Covid. Of course.
I remember my parent’s panicked reaction when I complained one day that my legs hurt. Didn’t understand it at the time but it made sense later.
I was allergic to merthiolate. Nowadays doctors don’t even know what it is so I’ve quit mentioning it when asked about allergies.
I knew a guy a long time ago who had a machine shop in his barn. He could recreate a part from scratch and made a decent income on the side making parts for obsolete machines.
Yep, same here. I was 4 and every one queued up alphabetically at city college in various lines to drop that sugar cube.
Simple and cheap remedies do not benefit the medical industry. Expensive prolonged treatments are more profitable.
I was born in 1955 and recall getting the sugar cube in third or fourth grade. I don’t remember that many polio victims around when I was young, just the occasional kid with a leg brace or a withered limb. Had a college professor who was in a wheelchair and used a cuirass ventilator.
How strange. We have 3D printing now. Something isn’t believable here.
In your speculation they’d have kept her alive. They aren’t “profiting” once she dies…
Wow, what a life. Dear lady.
Yep, my mother wouldn't let my brothers and I go to the public swimming pool. So we just swam in the creek.
KNOWING HOW TO FIX IT IS ONE THING:
GETTING PARTS IS ANOTHER
True indeed. There is also something else that people are not understanding. Generally a high loss of bodily function make the patient much more prone to bacteria, viruses, infections, and other issues most of us can fight off. To live as long in an iron lung as the last known 30 patients did were the exception and not the norm.
Medical science still today can only do so much. I saw my wifes Neurologist a month after she had passed while I was at the hospital visiting a cousin who was a heart patient. He approached me and offered his condolences. I mentions he had given her a life expectancy of 5 years and she almost lived 30 years. He said that would still be his prognoses 30 years later. Most dies from complications of other issues mentioned above that the body can not fight off.
Ventilators can and do help some people but there are limits. My wife was on one her last two weeks and could never come off it and survive it due to infection. She had to be suctioned several times a day to get most of the fluid out of her lungs. I asked about me doing it at home and it was considered by doctors and I was told it would have to be skilled facility 500 miles away. Also keep in mind that she by being on the vent with a trach could not talk. I made a poster with ABC's Yes/No and a few other responses she could point to to communicate with me and our kids.
They sent her home under home hospice {home our choice} and lived 24 house almost to the minute off the vent. She had survived many UTI's Pneumonia bouts and the CHF if triggered. He body said no more. The Lord said No more. We have knowledge and technology but sometimes the most needed is GOD's Will and our Wisdom to discern it.
I have two sibling cousins who were born in the early to mid 1970's The oldest at about 3 started showing muscle weakness. Her sister was soon born. The oldest could walk until about age 8. The youngest could not and is full quadriplegic. The youngest has had many close calls her older sister due to more movability hasn't contracted. Actually she has two grown daughters and grandkids.
I remember those shows, too. Like you, I was horrified by the site. I was too young to realize that for most people the iron lung was not to be a permanent, 24-hour a day situation.
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