Still using iron lungs?
I just read an article about a 61-year-old woman in Tennessee who died after a power failure caused her iron lung to stop working. The woman’s name was Dianne Odell, and she’d been stuck in the thing ever since she was diagnosed with polio at the age of 3.
Hmm, didn’t anyone think to provide a backup power source (such as a generator or something) in case of a power outage?
Two other things strike me about this story. First, this woman spent her entire life ON HER BACK inside a 750-pound machine and even had to use a mirror just to make eye contact with visitors. I wonder what her caregivers did about muscular atrophy and bedsores — not to mention bathing and the like. Was she ever able to get out of the machine for even a few minutes at a time??
Second, I had no idea that iron lungs were still in use. They sound like such ancient, outdated contraptions that I was surprised to hear that this woman spent nearly 60 years in one. I guess she had some other complications that prevented her from getting more modern equipment, though.
To Odell’s credit, she got her high school diploma, took college classes, and wrote a children’s book. That’s pretty amazing for someone confined to an iron lung. Seriously, I likely would have given up on things well before hitting 61….
(AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo, File)