Posted on 07/23/2010 1:57:50 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Folks in this small Cleveland County town still talk about the community’s most famous person – the woman in the iron lung.
Polio victim Martha Mason – paralyzed from the neck down – died in 2009 after spending 61 years in an airtight tube that breathed for her.
Her 2003 memoir, “Breath: A Lifetime in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung,” released by a small N.C. publisher, has just been reissued by a national firm with a foreword by novelist Anne Rivers Siddons, who called it a story of “hope and heroism.”
Also, the community is raising money for a town historical museum that will include Mason’s 800-pound yellow iron lung.
She had no close relatives and asked her friend Polly Fite to dispose of her property.
A week after Mason’s funeral, Fite got calls from all over the country about buying or borrowing the device.
She turned down all requests.
“I decided there was no question – it stays in Lattimore,” said Fite, 71. “Martha never told me what to do with it, but I felt like that’s what she wanted. The iron lung was her life. In our museum, we need to have a Martha place.”
At the time of her death, Mason was one of fewer than 20 people in the U.S. still living in iron lungs and one of the longest survivors.
A few days after the polio epidemic of 1948 killed Mason’s older brother she came down the same virus and never walked again. Despite her fragile condition, she graduated first in her class from Wake Forest University.
Mason wrote her memoir on a voice-activated computer.
When she died at age 71, her obituary in the New York Times caught the eye of Nancy Miller, an editor with Bloomsbury USA.
(Excerpt) Read more at charlotteobserver.com ...
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/23/1579138/memoirs-by-author-in-iron-lung.html#ixzz0uXbNuaof
How did she go to to the bathroom ?
Seriously not funny. Seriously not appropriate.
This woman showed more courage each day than most do in their entire lives.
I think just a tiny shred of respect is in order here.
With help, I’m sure.
These devices were common during the 1950s before the Salk and the Sabin vaccines were developed. Most people who got polio and survived were not confined to an iron lung. My father and his twin sister got it, and it damamged the growing tips of one of their legs, but they lived normal, active lives, although with a limp. Same with a great aunt. It kept my father out of WWII because he couldn’t pass the physical. Before the iron lung, if you were affected in the breathing area of your body you just died.
So you don’t know either
Also, how do you eat/drink/swallow without being able to modulate your breath pattern?
I should add that my father and his twin sister had mild cases. They were about 2 and came down with a relatively mild fever. My grandmother just said that they complained that it hurt to sit on the potty. It wasn’t until she took the twins for new shoes that the shoe salesmen noticed the difference in the size of their feet, left to right. She then took them to the doctor and they were diagnosed after the fact. This would have been in 1913. THere were 9 kids in the family and none of the others came down with the disease.
My great aunt (different family) got it around 1900 and I don’t know anything about her story.
I saw one in the late 60’s my mom had a friend in one. I know what the rhythm sounds like is kinda haunting
Perhaps you’ll have to buy the book. Or, ask a nurse.
I’m wondering why she didn’t switch to a portable ventilator when they became available. The article doesn’t mention it.
Bed pan or catheter.
I work with a guy who has polio. He is 50 years old. He has to be one of the last to get it. His right leg is smaller and shorter than his left. He has to buy two pair of shoes because he wears two different sizes.
Your question on daily care of an iron lung patient intrigued me.
I found a site, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, and the story of Larry Becker, who over time was weaned off the “lung.” His story will answer your questions. I found it very interesting.
I wondered the same, there are portable devices today. I have a 71 yr old sister that is paralyzed from the neck down due to polio at the age of 9. It’s been a hard life for her, but she has great spirit!! I recently talked to my doctors about her as most doctors today have never seen polio victims
Interesting story.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/polio-larry-becker/<.a>
I saw hundreds in the Elizabethtown PA State Hospital for Crippled Children from 1953 to 1955. The rehab verged on medieval torture. (I am not a doctor)
I know how rigorous the rehab was, my sister was stricken in 1949. She was so severe there wasn’t much left to rehab although she did get off the iron lung after a few year. At the age of 16 she was in rehab for the last time, only to teach her how to use what little she had left. She has now been hit with post-polio syndrome, as have most polio victims, as if they haven’t had enough problems
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