Martha Lillard, the last patient living in an iron lung in the United States, has died

Martha Lillard died on June 26 in Oklahoma, at the age of 78. She was the last patient in the United States to depend on an iron lung, a device she used since contracting polio in childhood, reported Associated Press.

Lillard had been left with less than 25% lung capacity before contracting COVID-19 twice and, in the last two years of his life, he spent almost 24 hours a day inside the device.

His younger sister, Cindy McVey, attributed the death to the effects of long COVID. The death certificate mentions chronic pulmonary insufficiency and post-polio syndrome.

McVey told the agency that her sister had been told she would not live many years: “They told her that she was not supposed to live past the age of 20. But she had the enthusiasm and determination to keep living and make the most of her life.”

A childhood marked by polio and dependence on the iron lung

For decades, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the United States, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis, especially in children.

The national vaccination campaign initiated after the arrival of the vaccines in 1955 reduced annual cases to fewer than 100 in the 1960s and to fewer than 10 in the 1970s. In 1979, the disease was declared eradicated from the country, reported Associated Press.

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Lillard turned 5 years old in 1953, two years before the invention of the vaccine, when the first symptoms appeared. Eight days before he died, he recalled on the KFOR channel: “I woke up and it was sunny outside, and I tried to sit up, but my neck hurt so much. I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow”.

Four days later she lost consciousness. “I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move my arms or legs,” she recounted. The illness left her paralyzed from the neck down.

Martha Lillard was the last patient in the United States who relied on an iron lung after having contracted polio in childhood (Instagram: @amanchor).

In her childhood, she initially spent six months hospitalized and even remained 23 hours a day in an iron lung while relearning how to breathe. The device, a full-body ventilator that enclosed the torso and regulated air pressure to force air in and out of the lungs, was then one of the standard treatments for polio patients, Associated Press and People specified.

However, she explained to KFOR herself that she did not reject the machine like other children: “Usually they didn’t like to put children in because they would resist, but I didn’t. I liked it. It felt good to breathe.”

Over time, he regained the ability to walk, strengthened his lungs, and recovered some use of his left arm and legs, although his right arm remained paralyzed and he could only move his left arm laterally at waist level.

Martha Lillard was paralyzed from the neck down by polio and had to learn to breathe with an iron lung.

He found love, wrote poems, and composed music

As a child, she attended elementary school for two hours a day and completed the rest of her education with private tutoring. Later, she attended Shawnee High School through a telephone system that allowed her to communicate via intercom with teachers and classmates, noted Associated Press.

His family also adapted their daily life to the machine. They would take road trips to Missouri with a special trailer, while his father called hotels to find out if the doors were wide enough for the device he slept in. For a period, he was even able to drive.

The iron lung was a full-body ventilator that regulated air pressure to force air into and out of the lungs in polio patients (Instagram: @amanchor).

Despite those limitations, Lillard lived alone for years and prepared her own meals. The arrival of the Internet expanded her world. It allowed her to stay informed and learn about different topics, including her illness.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, she wanted to better understand what had happened, entered a chat room, and met an Egyptian man with whom she maintained online contact for more than 20 years. Lillard married Baha Salh when he finally obtained a visa to travel to Oklahoma. Her sister stated: “They were truly soulmates. He is heartbroken.”.

In recent years, both were urgently looking for someone capable of repairing one of the several iron lungs that Lillard used throughout her life, because some parts came from the 1940s and were difficult to obtain.

Martha Lillard met Baha Salh online, with whom she maintained an online relationship for more than 20 years before getting married (Video capture: KFOR Oklahoma’s News 4).

The deterioration of the device became a problem when her health worsened due to post-polio syndrome and later due to long COVID. Last year, a tornado left the machine without electricity and her husband, Baha Salh, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her until help arrived, People reported.

Finally, she passed away on June 26th and her family opened a GoFundMe to raise funds and cover funeral expenses. The campaign description presents Martha as an artistic and creative person who wrote poems, composed songs, played the piano with her left hand, made paintings, and even wrote her own obituary. She also collaborated in the rescue of abandoned people and animals.