Martha Lillard, last US polio patient using iron lung, dies at 78 in Oklahoma

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Martha Lillard, the last U.S. polio patient using an iron lung, died at age 78 in Oklahoma on June 26.
She contracted polio at age 5 and relied on an iron lung for breathing, defying early predictions of a short lifespan.
Her death is attributed to long-haul COVID-19, with causes listed as chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome.
Lillard lived a full life: attending school via intercom, traveling with a custom trailer, driving, and eventually marrying.
She used the internet to learn, connect, and even met her future husband online, marrying him in February.
Despite paralysis from polio, she regained some limb use through therapy and lived independently for years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she contracted the virus twice, which worsened her breathing and confined her to home and the iron lung.
Lillard was artistic, writing poems and songs, and volunteered for animal rescue, particularly loving Beagles.
Polio, once a feared disease causing paralysis, was eliminated in the U.S. in 1979 due to vaccines.
In her final years, she struggled to find someone to repair her iron lung, a machine no longer widely used.

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