Latest News About Iron Lung

Updated 2026-05-30 05:14

I can't access live tools in this turn, but I can share a concise update based on the latest information I have. If you want me to fetch current sources, I can run a search in the next turn.Here’s a concise update on the iron lung and its latest context as of 2026.

Overview: The iron lung is an early mechanical ventilator that creates negative pressure to assist breathing. It was critical during polio outbreaks but is largely obsolete today due to modern positive-pressure ventilators and advances in respiratory care.[3][8]
Current status in the U.S.: By 2024, only a handful of people depended on an iron lung, with Martha Lillard often cited as one of the last remaining users; others have passed away or transitioned to newer technologies. A few individuals and institutions have preserved or showcased iron lungs for historical and educational purposes.[2][8][3]
COVID-19 impact: The pandemic renewed interest in the iron lung as a low-cost, quickly manufacturable option to bridge ventilator shortages, prompting prototypes and discussions about reusable, simple designs, though these are not standard clinical practice today.[1][4]
Historical significance: The iron lung helped save lives before widespread polio vaccination and influenced early respiratory therapy; with vaccination and modern ventilators, its role has diminished, though it remains a powerful symbol of medical innovation and patient resilience.[6][8]

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Sources

Decades after polio, Martha is among the last to still rely on ...

Martha Lillard had just turned 5 years old when polio incapacitated her. She still uses a form of the ventilator that saved her life as a child — though now she worries about replacement parts.

www.kpbs.org

I was the last person in an iron lung at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

It was in a storage room. It still worked. For some reason, I was allowed to get in it.

news.vumc.org

Flashback: Iron Lung

A medical miracle made of metal helped polio sufferers to breathe in the 1900s.

www.pfizer.com

Lifesaving Breath | Harvard Medical School

The newest addition to the Warren Anatomical Museum is a working iron lung.

hms.harvard.edu

The Iron Lung

Before 1955, when a vaccine first made polio a preventable illness, the paralysing disease had to be treated. For many, the best option was the iron lung, a device that came to symbolise an era of anxiety in mid-20th century America.

www.gavi.org

The Iron Lung | Science Museum

The iron lung was large, cumbersome and very expensive, but it saved the lives of thousands of polio victims.

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

The iron lung: How a hulking metal tube became the first ...

Polio epidemics shaped modern medicine and led to the creation of the first machine to keep humans alive: the iron lung.