"The Iron Lung and Polio" by Mark Rockoff, MD for 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.
Please visit: www.openpediatrics.org
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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.

[@ladyjane9980]

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

[@raem.6512]

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

[@thegreatcanadianlumberjack5307]

That would be hard to do as there is currently only 30 people surviving in the US currently in a Iron lung

[@Vlad2319]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/opeWYYFpZbSZb5Y plenty of other videos

[@notsospecialnate5992]

Please search “The Last of the Iron Lungs” on KZbin. It was to late for some people.

[@LoneRookeBand]

bob

[@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.

[@peterlabelle6428]

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

[@hi7607]

Yes there is but i still feel bad for these people who have It and even i am scared that more people will get polio but im from israel so i don't know if there is polio in israel. I really really am scared that people will get it and i don't want to know how it feels like

[@stellaz2595]

Not everyone with polio suffers from paralysis of the muscles that control breathing.

[@x.y.8581]

Are you joking? There have got to be more modern, less restrictive means of providing assisted breathing.

[@slushu_6865]

R. S. There is but some of them have extremely severe polio requiring the humongous machine

[@bjfifi]

Well Karen might be in one soon

[@mr.iforgot3062]

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

[@mariekatherine5238]

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.

[@alden5931]

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

[@zlz1333]

Alden Weaver Polio isnt as bad as it used to be and only in poor countrys do you're ok 😁

[@chris_chris_dav]

K1ki 0981 polio can be in any country and it take 1 person to start another polio break out

[@berdestefano4101]

Alden Weaver who isn't

[@supertornadogun1690]

same

[@breannareed5790]

Someone I'm related to has polio but she is not in an iron lung

[@anamerican2305]

These things should be on display as a warning to anti vaxers

[@notsospecialnate5992]

As a person who has all there vaccinations, I was curious why people didn’t vaccinate for polio. Today I have a gone through reading articles and watching videos all about polio. I learned that about 1/1,000,000 children develop polio through either of the vaccines. However this is very rare and has happened only a couple of times in the US. But THIS CAN CAUSE ANOTHER OUTBREAK. THIS HAS HAPPENED IN ANTI VAX NEBORHOODS. That’s all.

[@magickelfgirl]

@Peg Leg Unlike smallpox, polio has not been eradicated worldwide. It only takes one unvaccinated person to come into contact with the virus to start a new epidemic. At this point, getting vaccinated is not so much about not getting the disease but to keep it from coming back. In other words, yes, for now you DO need to get vaccinated in any country where the disease has been stopped, until it is declared completely eradicated worldwide. Because until then it can always come back.

[@magickelfgirl]

@Peg Leg Polio vaccine is still part of immunization schedule. What they stopped giving is the oral vaccine, they only use the injected one. Almost every country that has eradicated polio still vaccinates against it, to keep it from coming back.

[@anamerican2305]

I understand if you have a condition it can worse to get for young people and older people but I’m talking about people in their prime fitness and age

[@gollumfrog4226]

The yellow one is on display at Boston Children's Hospital, right next to the queue line for the covid vaccine. I snapped a pic of it today.

[@stellaz2595]

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.

[@hayyeh7795]

@sittenhere or 70+

[@EHMM]

:>

[@ellalager5091]

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

[@shannarafryer3111]

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

[@raympet]

You should check this out kzbin.info/www/bejne/naHPcmmmpp6WhdU

[@Windy_Jay]

These are so scary

[@vaila1315]

Terrifying disease these iron lungs must have been terrifying to have to go in

[@dankcatboi9275]

Watch the creepy pasta about this

[@steveo252]

Polio was really scary. These machines were life savers!

[@monti441]

My uncle had polio. And he was in these lung machine. Now he has67 years. don't use it but he can't use his arms and a few years ago his legs neither.

[@aljacemanuel970]

But Black Death more worse then corona and it spreaded 60 percent of the population 100 years ago

[@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.

[@autismwithavoice5507]

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

[@lokiwebster2984]

Uncle Sam Airsoft I agree

[@natehowell793]

Agree

[@annettemorrison7737]

Uncle Sam Airsoft: Resources are finite, as much as we like to think otherwise. If a private organization or person made the decision to pay for this, sure, it is possible. The problem is that there are a few people who need this compared to millions who desperately need other things. They are cutting Medicaid and Medicare so who would pay for the new equipment and possibly the research into a better concept? That isn't to say that these people do not deserve it because they do. But I don't see this happening.

[@commodoresixfour7478]

They are only obsolete when no one needs or wants them. :)

[@OMGwtgfhgg]

The market isn't big enough. If there's no profit, then nobody is going to do it. That's the sad truth of the matter.

[@fransvoogt4857]

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

[@ReallyWemja]

They have not seen the horror of these diseases. In a way they are the parasites of the herd immunity, when enough parents keep their kids from being vaccinated a disease can return and spread.

[@purplerose5316]

Frans Voogt if you,for a moment, forget everything someone else told you to believe,and do a little bit of your own research ( meaning using your own brain not someone else's) you will get an answer to your question

[@ryansmith2814]

ssjMarioX9000 your cousin did not lol

[@theredblood2976]

lol blame everything one the vaccinations yeah

[@TimeToMine830]

ssjMarioX9000 The tiny bit of Mercury did not give your cousin autism or make it worse. Mine didnt give me autism and yours didnt give you autism, and it didnt give autism to the one and a half million people in my city who got theirs. It didnt give autism to thr millions of children that were saved from polio in the 1900's and it didnt give it to the other billion people who got their vaccinations. The Mercury is a part of a preservative that keeps bacteria from growing in the needle. Its a different type that is cleaned out of the body faster. There is no debate, the science has proved it so many times by now I dont see how anyone can still believe it. People like you are literally killing children, small communities of people like you are getting infected with measles and their children are dying because of people with your mindset. Kids who actually allergic to vaccinations at risk of dying because herd immunity is compromised because of people like you. I hope your happy.

[@thomidog9047]

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

[@leosypher9993]

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

[@uhfnutbar1]

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 :(

[@ericajimenez6759]

😞😭😭😭😭😭😭😞

[@HiPHOPx87]

God bless you and your Grandmother. Much Love ❤

[@cynthiacupler8005]

I got polio at the age of 2,now I have pps,I am 74years old and I'm blessed to be Alice.

[@beecaro4412]

i hope youre doing well. ❤

[@maryloumader-pipia9698]

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

[@denisestovin3522]

I have always wondered how this worked. I was glad to see an article about it. What a great invention that helped many children survive. Well done and very interesting.

[@ELEKTROGOWK]

I have seen quiet alot of iron lung videos now. Somehow I got stuck to this topic and got very interested about it. It is a very intimidating machine for me. It is like laying in a space capsule and you have to relay 100% to it. I can imagine how many people freaked out in that machine, in the thought, something could start to fail. I defenitly would !!! This is a very good video, which shows the physical mechanisem and the function on the body. I couldn't believe that a small number of people are still using this machine, because the passive way of breathing should be more pleasant for them, as the positive preasure method. Thanks for the video!!!!

[@annettemorrison7737]

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

[@amberlynnsdirtybrastrap5573]

Annette Morrison I am too. But here I am watching them.

[@junbh2]

If you open one, KZbin will decide you want more.

[@annettemorrison7737]

junbh2: I know this is true, but I was noticing a lot of them before I finally clicked on this. I figure that it's an anniversary of the polio vaccine or something similar. I had forgotten that iron lungs existed. It's depressing.

[@woof1028]

Annette Morrison lol same

[@atticusbulan3508]

1. You wantched one video, therefore, you want to watch even more videos (KZbin logic) 2. You're watching this

[@kingdoge4796]

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

[@calamityredgnat9356]

KingDoge holy shittt

[@mosessupposes2571]

This was a great video. Had always heard of them but had no clue how they worked. Thank you!

[@lemlemhaile389]

Thank you for the detailed explanation the power of negative pressure

[@Winterbear009]

This is wonderful video that helps understand how iron lung operates. Thank you

[@dereks7061]

There is still one in use today… he’s lived in it for 60+ years and last I knew, he was still alive! Even became an attorney and wrote a book… incredible!

[@anne-liseteissedre3559]

Unfortunately, he recently died.

[@bublisoniyak6227]

I very much liked the video! It provides a crisp knowledge of the iron lung The content was just right! Length too was just right. In the end it was mentioned that the iron lungs are not in much use. But it would he great if you added the few people still surviving on the them! (Like a tribute to their never-give-up attitude🔥)

[@PhriendsySweetDreams]

Imagine 31 + iron lungs operating in 1 room.

[@ewelinakryszczyszyn423]

Phriendsy I can only imagine 30

[@lonahansen4990]

There are terrifying photographs of rooms full of polio patients from hospitals all over the world from the 1950s.

[@charlottevanlangevelde1114]

Those poor children, imagine the noise! The sound of the machines, other children crying for their parents..

[@Bran08Eman]

Curiosity on the Iron Lung Satisfied. Aware of it's usage during the Polio Pandemic. Never saw a demo of operation until now, thank you. I can go look at a ventilator demo and appreciate the technology.

[@alanabennett60]

Is it just me or do I feel like I can’t breathe

[@shannarafryer3111]

It's not just you

[@stheticptt9483]

@@shannarafryer3111 Yep It's harder to breath for me now ..

[@jayneyxx5063]

🤦‍♀️

[@laurenbrogan3162]

Def

[@YIPPEEE3]

It’s not just you.

[@anne-liseteissedre3559]

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

[@marquetteregionalhistorycenter]

Wow! During the outbreak, Michigan's Upper Peninsula was said to have one of the most sever rates of polio, having 320 confirmed cases. At one point, 13 people required an Iron Lung to survive, but only 1 commercial respirator was available in the UP. A few Yoopers got together to build more - using a wooden cabinet, a vacuum cleaner, and a record player (to make it automatic). State Troopers and other community members drove hours around the UP to pick up kids and bring them to St. Lukes Hospital in Marquette where the best help, and respirators, were.

[@dogsforlife3698]

Iron lungs look so cruel. I with people with polio didn’t have to cope with this

[@lonahansen4990]

Dying because you couldn't breathe would have been worse. Sometimes, when you have a disability, you have to make extreme adaptations just to live with the disability. I have known long term iron lung users who appreciated the extra years of life with their families even if they would have never chosen to live it in an iron lung.

[@thomidog9047]

Not as cruel as dying. You underestimate the will to live and what people are willing and able to go through in order to stay alive. It was a hideous virus.

[@LaCurlySue562]

I always wondered how these worked! Thank you!

[@abrokenquestionabrokenansw7979]

this is scary

[@Jindy2]

Excellent - concise and suitably descriptive. Many thanks.

[@cokemazing]

That was a really great and informative video I could never have done better myself.

[@johncashin4801]

Wonderful, thank you for the detailed and entertaining demonstration.

[@robertcruz6974]

I thank all Doctors.

[@reneadempsey413]

Aren't there a handful of adults who still require an iron lung to live?

[@juliamorgado221]

Yes , and they are in danger because extra parts and repair technicians are nearly non existent 😕

[@SlavicUnionGaming]

not many of those people are left and its 2019 , So its not really a handful anymore its like a couple

[@marcinwojcik5416]

Yes there is

[@emmanemz5824]

Yes there is, very few they are quite old and got it when they were young

[@deborahphillips500]

Good demonstration, BUT a few polio victims in the USA still require an iron lung. For them, the new methods mentioned do not work.

[@swaramnitu8122]

Thanks grateful to all those scientists who worked hard to defeat polio...👏👏👏👏👍🙏

[@aapfelkuchen]

There is a great video about this by the Mütter Museum, where a survivor tells the story about her childhood in the iron lung

[@gaylemcgee2221]

Extremely informative video!

[@205west8]

“Polio has disappeared in all but a few remote and underdeveloped regions of the world “ like where I’m from in Senegal west Africa where I caught it as 2 year old child ..

[@ginaallan-evans2466]

Children placed inside an iron lung found the noise very disturbing and it was a very anxious time. I sent months in and out of an iron lung and from Polio infection until today suffer with an issue with noise. PTS was not treated and so children were told to be strong and not to cry. I believe many suffer today with PTS and other health issue which are mainly left untreated.

[@generalsquirrel9548]

For some strange reason i cant explain why i wanna experience how it is to be in an iron lung and i also wanna know how it was/is for the patients. This video also is a good video. I learned alot thanks for. Making it

[@theresewilliamson9057]

I took care of several patients in an hour lung at University of Michigan Hospital in the 1990s.

[@carmelmurray2434]

Thank you this was very informative and useful

[@terrilllessing4578]

Very interesting, as my late MOM had POLIO. It is mentioned that the first patient of the I L was in 1928. I remember my MOM talking about having been in one. As she was born in 1912. and contracted the virus at just 2 years of age, i.e. 1914, how could this be possible?

[@jakeultrafh38]

Great video!! Learned a lot

[@raalaa121]

I'm amazed to be honest. Thank you Allah 🙏 for keeping my friends, family and myself healthy. We should all take a minute to appreciate just being able to walk and move around especially with this pandemic we are currently in.

[@johnnysilverhand3466]

The same allah killed other poor families in 9/11 and many other attacks

[@caribaez5711]

I am talking by myself and my brain brought the word polio to my mind.

[@Bw40099]

i want a restored iron lung now these things are cool

[@juliamorgado221]

Can you imagine having to be in that thing for hours at a time.... soo sad 😞

[@ericajimenez6759]

Hour's? Girl your whole life😞😞😞😞😞 so sad God bless them all and us us🙏

[@Zainfa4]

@@ericajimenez6759 😂 it’s so sad

[@ericajimenez6759]

@@Zainfa4 i don't understand the lol emoji🤔

[@Zainfa4]

@@ericajimenez6759 ? its crying emoji dude

[@ericajimenez6759]

@@Zainfa4 no it's not, you put an (lol emoji) I believe you hit the wrong emoji🤗. I get you.

[@myothercarisadelorean8957]

In relation to the part where they had the option to manually pump the machine, did hospitals back then even have back up power generators? Just wondering of during a power outage were they completely out of power?

[@amabadu9236]

Thanks for this video!!!!

[@dustindemilt6839]

Very informative. Thank you.

[@junelynn63]

What is used today to give negative pressure today? I have had respiratory distress and can't tolerate mask it feels like I am suffocating with air blown in my face,would negative pressure hhelp?

[@suzanneretzinger4290]

I was in one of these when my mother was pregnant with me in 1949/1950. I'd like to hear the sound of the iron lung more. Also would like to know of other people who were in these during the time their mothers were pregnant with them. What medications were people given when they had polio?

[@sheilaagnew1221]

So I have a question so the doctors and nurses there was there when the kids was in our iron lungs how come they didn’t get sick?

[@myrakeefer5977]

I am 64 I remember my mom and dad, brother putting moist towels in the oven getting them hot and wrapping them around my legs.i was on a cot in front off the oven.becauce of the Paine in my legs still don't know why they all took turns though the night.i still have problems . never felt the heat.

[@cashfrederick6541]

Good video on how iron lungs work

[@waadoda1263]

Very informative thank you

[@luzmariaayala1284]

I I'm 53 got Post Polio when I was 7 months old will I be needing a Iron lung machine later in life? Plz someone get in touch with me . More videos about Post Polio my doctor's are shock to know I have Polio at my age.

[@seanlally7384]

Did you know that Lead Arenate was being used as a pesticide in the US at the time the polio pandemocs started?

[@Anastashya]

Very interesting. Thank you 😊

[@lisaparmley6826]

I watch so much of this I fill like crying but there so brave

[@cmritchie04]

can they be used for CPR?

[@amandaroman3471]

At the time this was made there was a couple people within the US still living with an iron long so my question is why could these last few not be switched to the more modern treatments or was it because they had been in there so long and wouldn’t adapt to another device? Appreciate the insight as I am working on a study. Thank you!

[@nikkbee88]

They could. One said he just didn't like how it made him feel. And the iron lung was the most comfortable for him.

[@aliacoleman4659]

I learned a lot, thank you. Is it known where Polio originated? Did the Medical industry have the capability to track such things?

[@penelopenichols1654]

Very good video but the subject is creepy to me.

[@juliamorgado221]

Very creepy... more eerie I think....

[@SVAsianPhilippinesGo6858]

Why is there a mirror? Could someone fill me in? Also, I still don't really get it, so you're saying that the negative pressure of the iron lung presses against their chest? Because from the picture/demo it just looks like they were pumping air into a paitient! I think that would only cause built up GAS pains?! NOT helping a patient breathe? Please someone help answer thank you.

[@kingofthepod5169]

I always thought these were way more complex. Nice video. Maybe I could weld one together.

[@bonniehawkins2979]

Thank you.

[@williamadallen2095]

no its people like me who need to help fix all of them and maybe update them i little bit me i love workin on thing like that all the time and because of that more people need to see and know about things like this

[@rebeccamoore6965]

Yes there are 2 in the us. One poor man is in his seventies and been in one since 9 years old. He got a law degree and is one of the bravest men I have ever seen. I would rather die for the sight of it makes me so claustrophobic and I'm not usually claustrophobic. I live in Canada and does anyone know if there are any left in them here.

[@iLiKeTrAiNs5695]

There are also about 30 people living in an iron lung in the USA

[@ibrahimtahir6527]

Nice video... well done

[@rebeccamccready1135]

I’m so glad that had the polo vacationeted

[@nolight7828]

The colours they painted it makes it more scary. Why not gray or something more modern and trustful looking

[@34Becci]

Thank you

[@woof1028]

I used to think iron lungs were lungs, actual lungs made of iron lol 😂

[@Lilylunarhime]

Geo dash Gaming I thought plastic surgery involved plastic when I was a kid. So I can get that idea lol.

[@taylornicole7905]

Chiidori Arisato haha same

[@WalowSeel]

Thank you for the comment!

[@moltum]

What would happen if you would get into the iron lung if you could breathe like breathe perfectly fine

[@samistheman7949]

The Real Blue X lol, what would happen

[@dangernoodle8376]

The person in the video did not have polio they said he was a healthy volunteer

[@iLiveWire]

It forces you to breathe in and out, just like it would with someone who has polio.

[@elliettemaloney7659]

The Real Blue X you’d hyperventilate

[@mayradelarosa6161]

I enjoy the demonstration and I hope I never need the knowledge to help someone with it.

[@mayradelarosa6161]

With new technology have they made something similar? Companies like Apple and Windows always try to make phones better. Have any big company have look into this ?

[@jansobczyk6635]

Ty , was relly helpfull

[@jacksoncatania8688]

Great advice saved my life with stinu xd

[@Noblebird02]

What did they do before 1928?

[@helmaschine1885]

The worst part about them I never knew about is how goddamn LOUD they are! How people didn't go insane I'll never know

[@marthalillard3193]

Mine isn't really loud. I can easily hear my TV across the room while in the respirator.

[@NocturnalRS]

These are still pieces of technology that people need and people are still using them!

[@sickend2578]

Deus que coisa terrível, essa hora da vontade de ter super poderes e curar essas pessoas.

[@teresamichele4747]

Very interesting

[@mikedaniels4638]

What's the most important part of the iron lung? Seat belt. Who'd have thought.

[@BruceBlitzHasTits]

beautiful machines

[@rainbear1987]

Amazing

[@laciebranza3591]

@ the time of this video there were still @ least 30 people in the US living in “Iron Lungs”.