How do you eat in an iron lung?

You can eat in the iron lung because your head is outside but the rest of your body is inside, although since you are flat on your back you really need to be careful when you swallow; you have to swallow in rhythm with the machine because it’s pulling your diaphragm in and then pushing it out again.

Is Martha Ann Lillard still alive?

Martha Ann Lillard, now 65, has spent most of the past six decades inside an 800-pound machine that helps her breathe. News this month that at least 13 children have been paralyzed by a resurgence of polio in Syria — where the disease had been eradicated since 1999 — filled her with sadness and dread, she told NBC News …

What is the sign of polio?

Fatigue. Back pain or stiffness. Neck pain or stiffness. Pain or stiffness in the arms or legs.

What disease requires an iron lung?

No device is more associated with polio than the tank respirator, better known as the iron lung. Physicians who treated people in the acute, early stage of polio saw that many patients were unable to breathe when the virus’s action paralyzed muscle groups in the chest.

Is polio A virus?

Polio is a viral disease which may affect the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and paralysis. The polio virus enters the body through the mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person.

Where did polio originally come from?

1894, first outbreak of polio in epidemic form in the U.S. occurs in Vermont, with 132 cases. 1908, Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper identify a virus as the cause of polio by transmitting the disease to a monkey.

What really caused polio?

What causes polio? Polio is caused by the poliovirus. The virus enters the body through the mouth. It is spread through contact with the feces (stool) of an infected person or through exposure to phlegm or mucus when an infected person coughs or sneezes.