# Polio and Iron Lung



## hotreddun (Jun 27, 2008)

I'm 25 and I've never realized the iron lung existed! I've been doing lots of research about vaccines (vaccinating my baby...and I wanted to research all the "controversy"). And I can't believe that the iron lung polio thing was never mentioned in ANY of my history classes back in my school days?

Did anybody here live through it? These pictures seem so horrifying to me. Why any of these extremists won't vaccinate their children is beyond me

The color picture was of a 61 year old woman that just died who had lived in an iron lung since she was 3 years old!!!!


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## Gingerrrrr (Feb 12, 2008)

if someone put me in one of those i would freak out. too little space.

im interested, i dont even know what the iron lung is.


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## claireauriga (Jun 24, 2008)

I can't remember not knowing what an iron lung is, though I couldn't say just where I learnt it.

You don't actually 'suck' air into your lungs. What happens is that your intercostal muscles (those muscles between your ribs) contract and relax to increase and decrease the volume of your ribcage. They are aided by the movements of the diaphragm. When the volume increases, there is lower pressure in the thorax than in the surroundings, and air rushes into your lungs. When the volume decreases, there is higher pressure and air comes out of your lungs into the surroundings.

Many people with polio end up with paralysis of these muscles, including those that manipulate the diaphragm. That means that they can't expand the thorax to bring air into their lungs, so they can't breathe.

The person is sealed into the iron lung so that their mouth and nose are open to the outside world and the rest of their body is sealed in the airtight chamber. The pressure is decreased in the chamber, which 'lifts' the ribs and provides the increase in thorax volume needed for air to flow into the lungs. The pressure is then increased to 'push' the ribs back down. In this way the iron lung moves the ribcage to allow breathing to take place.


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## TaMMa89 (Apr 12, 2008)

Huh :shock:. Luckily polio has almost annihilated in the world.


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

hotreddun said:


> I'm 25 and I've never realized the iron lung existed! I've been doing lots of research about vaccines (vaccinating my baby...and I wanted to research all the "controversy"). And I can't believe that the iron lung polio thing was never mentioned in ANY of my history classes back in my school days?
> 
> Did anybody here live through it? These pictures seem so horrifying to me. Why any of these extremists won't vaccinate their children is beyond me
> 
> The color picture was of a 61 year old woman that just died who had lived in an iron lung since she was 3 years old!!!!


I'm not sure either but I'm with you. 

Too all future/soon to be moms..There are hundreds of researchers and various doctors that will tell you various views on whether or not to vaccinate your child. What I suggest doing is if you are actually considering NOT NO vaccine your little one against a specific illness, is to actually look up scientific articles in well known scientific journals to find what has actually been found.


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## Joshie (Aug 26, 2008)

My husband attended the funeral of a friend from high school. His friend had had polio as an adolescent. The vaccine was developed soon after he got polio.

My friend has a child who slept in an iron lung for more than ten years. It's not as large as the old iron lungs. Iron lungs are still in use today, especially for pediatric patients. Many of these kids have CCHS (Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome).

I am a nurse. I have vaccinated my children. I believe that vaccinations are important. But, there ARE rare instances of people being harmed by vaccines. This seems to happen more in families with mitochondrial disorders (although vaccines are recommended for most with mito). I think that it's easy to judge these people. I do get frustrated with many of them because they are convinced that vaccines caused autism or developmental regression in a child of theirs even though they have (a) relative(s) (unvaccinated) who have autism. 

Please, though, don't rush to judgement without understanding the positions of individuals who refuse to vaccinate. I have a friend, a physician, who does not vaccinate her children because they have family history of developmental regression with vaccination. Anyway, I think that in time and with additional research they'll be better able to predict which children with mito have difficulty with vaccines. 

Mito is a terrible disease. It's difficult to diagnose and difficult to treat. It's disabling. It is said that if you have dysfunction in 3 or more organ systems at any time in your life you should investigate mitochondrial cytopathy. There are NO organ systems spared by mito. All are at risk. 

Home - UMDF


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

As a young child, I remember that the threat of polio absolutely terrified parents of the day. Both Salk and Sabin were considered heros, and we rushed to the doctor as these vaccines became available.
Although I don't know anyone that was in an iron lung, I do have a friend that was left with a very weak leg and noticeable limp after struggling with polio as a child.


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

Joshie said:


> My husband attended the funeral of a friend from high school. His friend had had polio as an adolescent. The vaccine was developed soon after he got polio.
> 
> My friend has a child who slept in an iron lung for more than ten years. It's not as large as the old iron lungs. Iron lungs are still in use today, especially for pediatric patients. Many of these kids have CCHS (Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome).
> 
> ...


I was trying to leave my post as general as possible as I was also mainly referring to the misconception of the causes of autism. Glad you brought it up.


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