Polio: The Iron Lung


Figure 1.--Thid bank of iron lings was located in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1938. Some iron lings had mirrors to help the children see who they were talking to. These did not. Source: Mieth/Life.

Polio affected different children in various ways. The best known is the way polio affected childrens legs, making it difficult or impossible to walk. Some children found it difficult to breathe. This was a particularly deadly form of polio. Reasearchers in the late 1920s developed iron lungs to help these children breathe. The device saved the lives of thousands of children. These children often had to be put in iron lungs.. Foe many children, this was only necessary for a short period. Other children more severly affected might spend years in an iron lung. They could be outsdide it for short periods. Some children spent 10-15 years in an iron lung, usually after this their bodies would break down and they would die. Parents shuddered at the site and children were terrified. Polio vaccination programs rapidly reduced the number of new children affected viryually eraducating the disease.

Types of Polio

Polio affected different children in various ways. The best known is the way polio affected childrens legs, making it difficult or impossible to walk. Some children found it difficult to breathe. The pulminary type of polio thus was especually deadly.

The Machine

The nane iron lung became popular for a mechanical respirator. The machine assisted people to breathe when disease impaired muscle control that worked the lings. The proper name is a negative pressure ventilator.

Development

The first practical respirator was developed by Harvard medical researchers Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw (1927). They were very large machines designed to exerted a push-pull motion on a person's chest. The first iron lung was set up at Bellevue hospital in New York City. Another source indicated Children's Hospital, Boston (1928), They were in great demand because of the large number of polio victims with chest paralysis. John Emerson developed an improved version that was less expensive to build.

Operation

People needing help breating are placed inside a central chamber. Individual machines were built as cylindrical steel drums. Some larger facilities had banks of drums because of the number of patients involved. Onlt the person'd head protruded from the machine. An airtight seal is formed at the neck. Pumps regulate air presure within the chamber. And by rhymitically brining the pressure within the chamber abovve and below outside air pressure can dirce air in and out of the lungs.

Usage

Many of the individuals affected by polio of course were childrem. Children with breathing difficulties often had to be put in iron lungs. Patients varied as to the entensity of their breathing impairment. Thus some children needed to be placed in the lungs only periodically and for short periods. Other were confined to the lungs most of the day and for extended periods. Some children severly affected might spend years in an iron lung. They could be outsdide it for short periods. Hospitals in the 1930s began acquiring these machines. Major hospitals had wards with large numbers of iron lings during the 40s and 50s, large numbers of polio victims were confined to these machines. Parents shuddered at the site and children were terrified. Some children spent 10-15 years in an iron lung, usually after this their bodies would break down and they would die.

Vacination

Iron lungs were of course a stop-gap measure. They only kept the patient alive while the body was able to restore ling power. It was not a cure. Some children never were able to recover. The only real answer to polio was preventing the disease. This required a decades long international effort to identify the cause and then develop a vaccine. The inotial work was done in Europe. Finally two American reserch scientists developed effective vaccines in the 1950s. Polio vaccination programs rapidly reduced the number of new children affected viryually eraducating the disease. Today parents who once libed in fear of this dreadful disease only have to have their children vaccinated.

Current Status

There have also been a variety of advanced breathing therapies developed, but the machines have not yet entirely disappeared.






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Created: 6:06 AM 11/13/2006
Last updated: 7:04 PM 11/24/2006