Last U.S. Polio Survivor in an Iron Lung Dies After the Machine Started to Break Down

[dalton99a]

https://people.com/the-last-us-polio-patient-in-iron-lung-dies-78-12016065

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
Martha Ann Lillard’s sister said it was “hard to locate” parts for the obsolete iron lung, some of which are from the 1940s
By Cara Lynn Shultz
Updated on July 10, 2026 04:43PM EDT

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.

...

[oasis]

1. I feel sad for Martha Ann and the Lillard family

who dealt with the problems of this disease for many decades.

[SouthBayDem]

2. Easy to guess who is definitely NOT invited to the funeral.

Hint: His dad was a US senator for New York.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

3. I hope modern ventilators replace the need for those things

[dsc]

4. Actually the polio vaccine did

[NickB79]

5. How could they not fabricate new parts?

Our engineering department at our factory has a small machining shop in the basement complete with a CNC machine and 3D printer. Maintance can fabricate spare parts to keep us running at least temporarily if we can't get OEM parts for a while (some of our equipment is made in Germany and Italy).

It was a 50-yr old piece of tech, nit even computerized, right?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. The full article doesn't say a break down or lack of parts was the cause

Just that they were worried about it.

Other polio survivors transitioned to more modern respirators, but Lillard said “I tried all of them” and none could give her “what I needed to breathe. So they just weren’t effective.”
...
Amid those health struggles, the obsolete device had begun to break down, according to KFOR.

“Some of the parts are from … the 1940s, and they’re hard to locate,” her sister, Cindy McVey, said. “We have a spare motor, but we don’t have anyone to put it back in if we needed it.”

By this time, Lillard was relying on the iron lung 24 hours a day. According to her obituary, long-haul COVID was eventually named as her cause of death.

And as KFOR reports, Lillard struggled with access to healthcare. Last year, a tornado knocked out power to her iron lung. Her husband, Baha Seleh, gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until help arrived.

https://people.com/the-last-us-polio-patient-in-iron-lung-dies-78-12016065

I'm sure someone would have tried to hook up the spare motor if it was needed. Why a modern respirator didn't help her as much as the old one, I don't know.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. Heartbreaking and Inspiring...

According to her obituary and a GoFundMe page, Lillard lived with only 25% lung capacity, scoliosis, and a paralyzed right arm while pursuing creative passions such as painting, writing poetry, and composing music for the left-hand piano. She was also known for rescuing abandoned animals, especially dogs, across the U.S. Friends and supporters described her as determined to live as fully as possible despite her physical limitations.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/last-american-in-iron-lung-dies-at-78/gm-GM31FF9829

The best we could do until Jonas Salk and the vaccine. May good people continue to make life better for all.