Polio survivor who was last American iron lung user dies at age 78
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A 78-year-old Oklahoma woman who was diagnosed with polio as a child and was the last American to rely on an iron lung to survive has died.
At the age of 5, Martha Lillard learned she had a once-feared disease that left her paralyzed from the neck down, requiring her to use a machine to help her breathe while she slept.
Lillard contracted COVID-19 twice during the pandemic, leaving him in the machine nearly 24 hours a day.
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“They told him he shouldn’t be 20,” his younger sister, Cindy McVey, told The Associated Press on Friday. “He had the enthusiasm and drive to keep living and make the best of his life.”
Despite having polio, Lillard was able to attend school for two hours a day during his childhood and had private tutors the rest of the time. He also used the intercom system, which allowed him to interact with his teachers and classmates from home.
Martha Lillard rests in her iron lung in Shawnee, Oklahoma. (Cindy McVey/AP Photo, File)
Lillard was even able to go on long road trips as a child, thanks to a custom-made trailer that could accommodate the iron lung and his father who made sure their hotel had doors wide enough for the machine.
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The iron lung is a negative pressure ventilator that will help a patient whose lung muscles are paralyzed to breathe.
A row of iron lungs is seen inside a hospital in Los Angeles in 1950. (Bettmann Archive)
The disease caused thousands of cases of stroke in children each year during epidemics in the first half of the 20th century, before the invention of a vaccine in 1955.
By 1979, polio was considered eradicated in the United States
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Later, thanks to therapy, Lillard was able to regain the use of his left arm and legs and was even able to drive for a while.
She lived independently for many years, and earlier this year even married an Egyptian man with whom she had been corresponding for twenty years, for whom she was able to obtain a visa.
A nurse prepares children for the polio vaccine as part of a citywide vaccine test on elementary school students. (Bettmann Archive)
“They were truly soul mates,” McVey said. “He is extremely heartbroken.”
According to his sister, Lillard, who writes poetry and volunteers at the Humane Society, had only 25% lung capacity before he was diagnosed with Covid.
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According to his death certificate, he died of chronic lung failure and post-polio syndrome.
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His sister added that it had to do with the long-term effects of COVID.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
