Last American to use an iron lung dies at 78 years old after childhood polio diagnosis

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 live has died.

Martha Lillard found out she had the once-feared disease when she was 5 years old, which left her paralyzed from the neck down, and required her to use the machine to help her breathe while she slept.

Lillard contracted COVID-19 twice during the pandemic, which left her in the machine nearly 24 hours a day.

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"They told her she wasn't supposed to live past 20 years old," her younger sister, Cindy McVey, told The Associated Press on Friday. "She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life."

Despite having polio, Lillard was able to go to school two hours a day as a child, and she had tutors the rest of the time. She also used an intercom phone system that allowed her to interact with her teachers and classmates from home.

Lillard was even able to take road trips as a child because of a custom trailer that could accommodate the iron lung and her father making sure their hotels had wide enough doors for the machine.

An iron lung is a negative-pressure ventilator that would help a patient with paralyzed lung muscles breathe.

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The disease once caused thousands of cases of paralysis in children during outbreaks each year in the first part of the 20th century before a vaccine became available in 1955.

By 1979, polio was considered eliminated in the U.S.

Later, Lillard was able to regain the use of her left arm and legs through therapy and was even able to drive for a time.

She lived independently for many years, even marrying earlier this year to a man from Egypt she corresponded with for two decades after he was able to obtain a visa.

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"They were really soul mates," McVey said. "He's extremely brokenhearted."

Lillard, who her sister said wrote poetry and volunteered with the Humane Society, had just 25% lung capacity before she was diagnosed with COVID.

She died of chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome, according to her death certificate.

Her sister added that it was related to the effects of long-haul COVID.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.