The last known person in the United States to rely on an iron lung has died, marking the close of a remarkable chapter in the history of polio and respiratory medicine.
Martha Ann Lillard, who contracted poliomyelitis as a five-year-old in 1953, died on June 26, 2026, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, at the age of 78. According to her sister, Cindy McVey, long COVID significantly worsened Lillard's health in her final years. Her death certificate lists chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome as the immediate causes of death.
Lillard spent more than seven decades living with the effects of paralytic polio and became the last known American to depend on an iron lung, a once-common negative-pressure ventilator used to help patients breathe during the height of the polio epidemics.
Lillard became ill shortly after celebrating her fifth birthday in 1953, one of the deadliest years of the polio epidemic in the United States. The infection left her unable to breathe independently and caused paralysis affecting her right arm and much of her body.
She spent approximately six months in hospital before returning home. During rehabilitation, she remained inside the iron lung for about 23 hours each day. Although many patients later transitioned to modern positive-pressure ventilators, Lillard continued using the iron lung because it remained the most effective and comfortable form of respiratory support for her.
Doctors once believed she would not survive beyond the age of 20. Instead, she lived nearly eight decades.
Through years of rehabilitation, Lillard regained limited movement in her left arm and partial use of her legs, although her right arm remained paralysed. She also lived with scoliosis and had only about 25% lung capacity.
Despite these challenges, she maintained a remarkable degree of independence. She prepared her own meals, adapted her home to meet her needs, and remained active within her community.
As a child, she attended school for only a few hours each day before receiving tutoring at home. Later, Shawnee High School installed a telephone intercom system that enabled her to participate in classroom lessons remotely, decades before virtual learning became commonplace.
Her family also ensured she experienced as normal a childhood as possible. They travelled together using a specially designed trailer capable of transporting the iron lung, while her father contacted hotels ahead of time to ensure their doorways were wide enough for the machine. Lillard was also able to drive for part of her life using adapted controls.
Lillard pursued numerous creative interests despite her physical limitations. She painted, wrote poetry, composed music, including pieces for left-hand piano, and remained deeply committed to helping others.
According to her obituary and family members, she volunteered with the Humane Society, assisted with Beagle rescue efforts, helped at a local daycare centre, and volunteered on a crisis telephone line.
She also wrote her own obituary, describing herself as an animal lover who devoted much of her life to serving others while living with the long-term effects of polio.
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Lillard joined online chat rooms to better understand world events. There she met Baha Salh, an Egyptian man with whom she developed a friendship that grew into a lasting relationship over more than two decades.
After years of waiting for immigration approval, Salh received a visa and travelled to Oklahoma. The couple married in February 2026, just a few months before Lillard's death.
Her sister, Cindy McVey, described the pair as soulmates and said Salh was devastated by her passing.
Lillard's health declined significantly after contracting COVID-19 twice. According to her sister, long COVID further reduced her already limited respiratory function, leaving her unable to leave home during the final years of her life.
During roughly the last two years, she relied on the iron lung nearly around the clock.
Maintaining the decades-old machine had also become increasingly difficult. Replacement parts were scarce, and very few technicians still possessed the expertise to repair iron lungs. Family members had spent years searching for someone capable of servicing the ageing equipment.
An iron lung is a negative-pressure ventilator introduced in the late 1920s to support patients whose breathing muscles were paralysed, particularly during polio outbreaks.
The patient lies inside an airtight metal chamber with only the head outside. By creating alternating changes in air pressure around the body, the machine expands and contracts the chest, allowing the lungs to inhale and exhale without requiring the patient's respiratory muscles to function.
Although iron lungs once lined hospital wards during major polio epidemics, they were gradually replaced by more compact positive-pressure ventilators and advances in critical care medicine.
Lillard contracted polio just two years before the first successful polio vaccine became available in 1955.
The introduction of widespread vaccination programmes transformed public health, reducing annual polio cases in the United States from tens of thousands to fewer than 100 by the 1960s and fewer than 10 during the 1970s. Indigenous transmission of wild poliovirus in the country was declared eliminated in 1979, although vaccination remains essential to prevent imported cases and sustain community protection.
Reference:
Meyer, J. A. “A Practical Mechanical Respirator, 1929: The ‘Iron Lung.’” The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 50, no. 3 (1990): 490–493.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2205164/
(Rh/ARC)