iron lung Archive — Page 1 of 1

Black-and-white photograph of a smiling man standing beside an open front-loading washing machine, with two women nearby; one wears a uniform with a prominent red cross emblem.

Polio patients, iron lung respirators, and…hey, is that Pat Boone??!!

Polio was a terrifying disease, once filling wards at VUMC with paralyzed patients in iron lungs. Vaccines have saved us from all that.

Green metal iron lung with circular viewing ports, gauges, and mechanical supports, displayed indoors at Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in Tuskegee, Alabama.

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.