Last Iron Lung Survivor’s Death Unveils Shocking Truth About Forgotten Medical Machines
Can you even fathom spending every single hour of your life cocooned inside a gigantic metal tube—no Netflix, no snacks, just the steady hum of an iron lung? I mean, who signs up for that? Yet, this was Martha Ann Lillard’s reality for the better part of seven decades. Diagnosed with polio on her fifth birthday in 1953, two years before the vaccine swept the USA, Martha Ann literally breathed through this vintage contraption, which kept her alive and kicking (well, mostly lying down) until she passed at 78 in 2026. Her time in the iron lung ebbed and flowed—starting off nearly round-the-clock and easing to just a nightly necessity, but always a lifeline. And despite the sheer challenge—and parts as rare as hen’s teeth—she kept her spirit alive through art, poetry, and music, proving that even when life puts you inside a metal box, your soul can still soar. Curious to know more about Martha’s extraordinary journey and the legacy of the iron lung?
Can you imagine spending every single hour of the day lying inside a huge metal contraption?
It’s almost unthinkable.
But that’s exactly how Martha Ann Lillard spent the last months of her life before she died aged 78 on June 26, 2026.
Lillard was diagnosed with polio on her fifth birthday in 1953 – two years before the pivotal vaccine became widely available in the USA two years later – and relied on the iron lung for the rest of her life.
Though the amount of time she had to spend in the life-saving machine – which generates negative air pressure to make the lungs breathe in and out when they can’t do so on their own – varied wildly over the next 73 years.
When she was first diagnosed, Lillard spent 23 hours a day in the iron lung, with her one hour of freedom spent rehabbing her paralysed limbs – an extreme symptom of the polio virus which, thankfully, is now extremely rare in the United Kingdom due to an extensive and successful vaccine programme.
However, after learning how to breathe on her own again, at her healthiest, Lillard got her time in the iron lung down to just nine hours as she slept at night and was able to live a relatively normal life despite the illness.
Lillard in the iron lunch (Youtube/KFOR Oklahoma’s News 4)
However, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a deterioration of her health as she contracted it twice, as well as singles, before dying of long-haul Covid.
That wasn’t helped by the fact that the trusty iron lung, which Lillard returned to over more modern alternatives, began to break down and was too old to repair.
It was tough to find the parts for an iron lung
Though the idea of such a machine was first thought up in 1670, the iron lung as we know it was developed in 1928 and the introduction of the polio vaccine meant they became largely obsolete in the 1960s.
As a result, parts of the old machines are now incredibly rare and even harder to actually replace.
Lillard’s sister, Cindy McVey, said, via the Daily Mail: “Some of the parts are from the chevs of the forties, and they’re hard to locate.
“We have a spare motor, but we don’t have anyone to put it back in if we needed it.”
As Lillard’s reliance on the machine increased, it began to falter.
An iron lung. (Getty)
Her husband, Baha Seleh, was even forced to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save her alive last year when a tornado left her without power.
Despite the affliction that altered the course of her life, Lillard was able to remain positive and creative. She used to paint, write poems and compose music on a left-hand piano, all without the use of her paralysed right arm.
“She didn’t really require a caretaker until Covid-19,’ McVey, added. “She fixed her own meals and, and took care of everything herself.”
Though she used a portable ventilator when outside the iron lung and did try alternatives, she always returned to it.
“When I got in it, I was tired,’ Lillard told KFOR just before her death. “Always getting in there felt wonderful.
“None of them [modern respirators] could get up to 21 pounds [per square inch], which is what I needed to breathe. So they just weren’t effective.”
Polio is now extremely rare in the United Kingdom
Polio – short for poliomyelitis – used to kill and seriously paralyse millions upon millions worldwide until the vaccine was introduced.
Now, wild polio cases have decreased by 99 per cent since 1988, with only six cases reported in 2021, as reported by the World Health Organisation.
According to the NHS, no confirmed cases of paralysis caused by polio caught in the United Kingdom have been reported since 1984.
However, there is still a higher chance of you catching the virus if you are not fully vaccinated.
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