Martha Lillard, last U.S. polio patient known to use an iron lung, dies at 78

Martha Lillard, an Oklahoma woman widely identified as the last person in the United States still using an iron lung because of polio, has died at 78, according to reports citing family and local officials.

Lillard, of Shawnee, lived for decades with the effects of paralytic polio, a disease that once terrified American families and sent thousands of children and adults into hospitals. She became one of the country’s most visible links to the period before vaccines sharply reduced polio’s spread in the United States.

The iron lung, a large metal ventilator, helped patients breathe by creating changes in air pressure around the body. Before modern portable ventilators became common, the machines were a critical treatment for people whose chest muscles had been weakened or paralyzed by polio. Many patients used them temporarily. A smaller number relied on them for years.

A life shaped by polio

Lillard was part of a generation that experienced polio before the Salk vaccine was introduced in the 1950s. The virus can infect the spinal cord and cause paralysis. In the most severe cases, it affects the muscles needed to breathe, making mechanical assistance necessary.

Her continued use of an iron lung drew attention because the machines, once found in hospitals across the country, largely disappeared from routine care as medicine advanced and vaccination drove down infections. Maintaining the older equipment became increasingly difficult as parts and technicians grew scarce.

Lillard’s story was often described as one of adaptation and persistence. She lived with a technology most Americans know only from black-and-white photographs of polio wards, while also navigating the practical challenges of daily life with a rare, long-term medical need.

A reminder of vaccine-era gains

Polio was once among the most feared childhood illnesses in the United States. Epidemics in the first half of the 20th century led to quarantines, closed swimming pools and widespread anxiety for parents. The introduction of effective vaccines transformed the public health landscape, and naturally occurring polio was eliminated in the U.S. in 1979, according to federal health authorities.

Health officials continue to urge vaccination because poliovirus has not been eradicated worldwide and can still spread among unvaccinated people. A 2022 case in New York, tied to vaccine-derived poliovirus, renewed attention to immunization gaps and wastewater surveillance.

Lillard’s death follows that of other high-profile polio survivors who depended on iron lungs into the 21st century. Their lives underscored both the severity of the disease and the medical progress that has made such cases extraordinarily uncommon.

Her passing closes a notable chapter in U.S. public health history. For many, Lillard represented the human consequences of a disease that has nearly vanished from American life, but not from memory.