Children in an iron lung before the advent of the polio vaccination..
In 1952, more than 21,000 Americans contracted a paralyzing form of polio, and 3,000 died from it. Once infected, there was no treatment besides time and tending to the symptoms.
Unable to breathe, patients entered iron lungs, which made use of negative pressure ventilation - a continual displacing and replacing the air inside of the machine - to compress and depress the chest, simulating respiration. Although the patient could breathe in the machine, he could do little else besides look up at a mirror reflecting the room behind him (upside-down and backwards, of course). Typically, the children would spend two weeks inside while recovering.
Remember this next time you're against vaccination! ;)
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_pressure_ventilator
Image via National Museum of Health and Medicine
Oh dear, I'm from that era but had no idea that's how it was "treated" at the time. Happy my folks knew better. Thanks for the post Corina Marinescu
ReplyDeleteRotary International, working in cojunction with the Gates Foundation is driving the goal of eradicating Polio. Visit the site <polioplus.org> for information.
ReplyDeleteThere are still people living in iron lungs. Never having recovered sufficiently, they have had to stay in the machine with brief periods away. One woman, Martha Mason, wrote about her experience of living in an iron lung for 60 years. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/us/10mason.html?_r=0
ReplyDeleteI remember the smaller ones that could be wheeled around.
ReplyDeleteMy good friend Laurel Nisbet spent 37 years in one but her faith kept her positive and her kindness helped others to cope with far less than she had to deal with.
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