Martha Lillard, a 78‑year‑old resident of Oklahoma, passed away after a lifetime of resilience. Lillard was the last American known to depend on an iron lung for breathing support.
She contracted polio at age five, which left her paralyzed from the neck down and required the iron lung to aid her breathing during sleep. The machine became an integral part of her daily life for decades.
During the COVID‑19 pandemic, Lillard contracted the virus twice. The infections forced her to spend nearly continuous time in the iron lung, severely limiting her independence.
Her younger sister recalled that medical professionals had once warned she would not live past twenty. Despite those predictions, Lillard maintained a strong will to live and to make the most of her circumstances.
While paralyzed, Lillard attended school for two hours each day and received tutoring for the remainder. She also used an intercom system to communicate with teachers and classmates from home.
Lillard’s family arranged for a custom trailer that accommodated the iron lung, enabling her to travel by road. Hotels were selected to ensure wide doorways for the machine and her companion vehicle.
An iron lung is a negative‑pressure ventilator that assists patients with paralyzed lung muscles in breathing. The device became obsolete with the widespread use of the polio vaccine.
Polio caused widespread paralysis in children before the 1955 vaccine. The disease was declared eliminated in the United States by 1979.
In later years, Lillard regained use of her left arm and legs through therapy and even drove for a period. She married a man from Egypt after two decades of correspondence and remained active as a poet and volunteer with a local humane society.
Her death certificate lists chronic pulmonary failure and post‑polio syndrome as causes, with complications from long‑haul COVID contributing to her decline.
