The Iron Lung and Polio by M.Rockoff | OPENPediatrics

In this video, Dr. Rockoff talks about the history, development, and use of the iron lung in response to polio.

Initial publication: January 12, 2016.
Last reviewed: October 22, 2019.


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Poliomyelitis, commonly referred to as polio, is a frightening, contagious viral disease that can have devastating effects on the central nervous system. Children are most often affected, but adults can also be vulnerable as seen when future president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, became infected in 1921 at the age of 39.

Though this illness has likely been around for millennia, it became more prevalent in the early to mid 1900s, as large epidemics occurred around the world. Ironically, these often happened in developed nations, including the United States, as improved sanitation led to reduced naturally acquired immunity.

Many children who were infected developed a fever and soon were unable to move their limbs. Some had such extensive involvement of their spinal chord that they also could not breathe effectively. When this occurred, death often resulted from respiratory failure. For many, little other than comfort measures were available for treatment.

However, Philip Drinker, an engineer at the Harvard School of Public Health, developed a simple, mechanical ventilator that could be used to provide effective respirations for individuals who were too weak to breathe on their own. This large device, which because of its construction became known as an iron lung, was first used to treat an eight-year-old girl with polio in 1928 at Boston Children's Hospital adjacent to the Harvard School of Public Health.

Soon thereafter, iron lungs were being mass produced and used to treat polio patients around the world. In the early 1950s, during the last large polio epidemics that occurred, much of Boston Children's Hospital was devoted to treating polio victims. However, due to the pioneering research work of John Enders, a microbiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, and his colleagues at the hospital, techniques were developed to culture the polio virus in the laboratory.

This enabled Dr. Salk and Sabin to develop vaccines that rapidly led to the eradication of this deadly disease. And in 1954, Drs. Enders, Weller, and Robbins received the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work. By the 1980s, iron lungs were virtually obsolete, having been replaced by much smaller and less cumbersome mechanical ventilators that are now used to treat patients with respiratory failure from other causes. In order to appreciate how an iron lung functions, the archives program at Boston Children's Hospital has restored an old lung and created this short video.

[CedarHollowJRT]

I had polio as a 3 year old child in 1952. I was hospitalized for weeks and was very lucky to come through it without any physical damage. Thank you for this video confirming my memory that I was in an Iron Lung for only a few hours at a time.

[raem.]

It is a good demonstration. This piece of equipment saved so many polio victims. And the relative simplicity of design shows the ingenuity of the times. What a wonderful day for all of humanity when the polio vaccine was created. It would have improved the video to hear from a person who had been in an iron lung

[ladyjane]

My Grandmother had polio as a toddler. She'll be 92 next month. Still drives 💝

[alden]

Boy, I'm glad to have been vaccinated as a baby!

[peterlabelle]

There are people in the US, still living in iron lungs.

[mariekatherine]

My uncle belonged to the volunteer fire dept. One of his duties was to manually operate the iron lungs at St. Charles Children’s Hospital during power outages.

[ellalager]

I have never heard of this until today. God bless internet

[fransvoogt]

how can one understand that many people are "anti vaccination" ?

[mr.iforgot]

I was in an iron lung for 7 years until I got healthy. I'm 70 and in perfect shape

[TRUCKER-BIKER]

i was born in 63 and remember seeing them the hospitals. i never used one, but i remember thinking as a kid they where scary and it made me feel sad for people who had to live in them.

[leosypher]

Feedback - this was a good video, the narrator was good, it was informative and simple, with a live demonstration of what was being talked about as well as good historical images

[autismwithavoice]

There's a few polio survivors in the u.s. still and they are still in need of iron lungs even knowing that medical technology is so far in advance that there's no purpose of the iron lung there still people out there who have polio who do need the iron lung so my question is if medical technology so far advanced it should be able to manufacture iron lungs again and maybe even better

[stellaz]

When I was a young girl in the 1950's, our youth group would visit a young woman who lived in an iron lung in her parents' living room.

[thomidog]

This is brilliant, I'm so glad this is here as a record of what the iron lungs were like.

[shannarafryer]

This video made me feel sick and like I can't breathe. This is to scary

[uhfnutbar]

My grandmother survived Polio she got it in her leg in the late 20`s the first epidemic before the 50`s, she was like ten years old they ended up cutting out a section of bone from her leg and stuck the peace in her ankle to fuse the bones together because the musicale in her lower leg where useless, , , She was one of the lucky ones the Polio stop there and when in to remission, , She told me a story`s about being in an isolation hospitable where she see many kids show up and die and many end up in an iron lung for a few weeks but end up dieing :(

[maryloumader-pipia]

Very well done, people need to see how important scientific research is, this is one way of doing just that

[annettemorrison]

Why am I getting tons of videos about the iron lung in my feed?

[anne-liseteissedre]

The death of Paul Alexander brought me here. I never knew such people or machine existed. Science is great! May his soul find peace🙏🏽

[kingdoge]

Those three iron lungs in the thumbnail look like they belonged to the heathers