Summary：Beloved Last Polio Survivor in Iron Lung Passes Away at 78 **Introduction** Martha Lillard, widely

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Beloved Last Polio Survivor in Iron Lung Passes Away at 78

**Introduction**
Martha Lillard, widely recognized as the final known user of an iron lung in the United States, died peacefully at her home in Oklahoma City on November 2, 2025, at the age of 78. Her passing marks the end of an era for a medical device that once kept thousands of polio victims alive during the mid‑20th century. Lillard’s story, spanning more than six decades of reliance on the massive negative‑pressure ventilator, has become a poignant reminder of both the devastation wrought by poliomyelitis and the triumphs of modern vaccination efforts.

**Key Developments**
Lillard contracted polio in 1953 at the age of six, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down. For the next 72 years, she lived inside an iron lung—a cylindrical steel chamber that creates a vacuum around the chest to facilitate breathing. Despite the machine’s bulk and the constant hum of its pump, she pursued education, earned a degree in social work, and advocated for disability rights. In recent years, advances in portable ventilators and non‑invasive respiratory support offered alternatives, yet Lillard chose to remain with the device that had sustained her life. Her death was confirmed by family members, who noted that she had been in stable condition until a brief respiratory complication led to her decline.

**Industry Analysis**
The iron lung, invented in the 1920s by Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw, became a symbol of the polio epidemics that swept the United States before the Salk and Sabin vaccines arrived in the 1950s. At its peak, over 1,200 iron lungs were in use nationwide. Today, the technology is largely obsolete, replaced by positive‑pressure ventilators that are smaller, quieter, and more adaptable to home care. Lillard’s prolonged reliance on the iron lung underscores both the durability of early