Many consider it “not life”. But for the American Martha Ann Lillard To be held in an “iron lung” since she was five in 1953 has been a blessing.
“I see him as a friend, a dear friend”she tells a YouTube channel. “It keeps me going. It heals me. It lets me breathe the next day.”he added.
And they already are 69 years in an “iron lung”.
While celebrating her 5th birthday at an amusement park in Oklahoma (USA), the American saw her life change radically.
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Seven days after the visit, she woke up with neck pain and was taken to a hospital, where the diagnosis was made polio. She wasn’t vaccinated.
Martha in Iron Lung, 1953 Photo: Reproduction/Martha Ann Lillard
Her respiratory muscles were disabled by the disease and she was immediately placed in an “iron lung”, the more popular term for the negative pressure ventilator that also kept her compatriot Paul Alexander alive for 70 years (world record).
“I ask ‘why’ all the time. I don’t get any answers. After asking so many times and getting no answers, you just keep going,” the American told NBC News.
In the “iron lung”, Martha Watch movies, paint and take care of your beagles. With the help of a caregiver. She keeps in touch with the world through a cell phone and a computer.
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Poliomyelitis is a viral infection of the spinal cord that primarily affects young children. The virus is spread through contaminated food and water (in Martha’s case, it was a pancake). Most infected people don’t develop symptoms and don’t even know they have them. But about 1 in 200 cases The virus destroys the nerve cells that activate muscles, causing irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. It can also paralyze the respiratory muscles and sometimes lead to death.
Martha Lillard in an “Iron Lung” Photo: Playback/YouTube
The vaccine developed by Jonas Salk that reached the US population in April 1955: too late for children like Martha.
“If my mother had had the opportunity to give me the vaccine, she would have done it”‘ said Martha.
In 2004, 39 people were still living in an “iron lung”. Over the years the number dwindled until only Martha and Paul remained.
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Poliovirus is endemic in only two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2022, 29 cases were registered worldwide, up from 6 in the previous year.