Inside the Lung

What a neat picture! This really gives you the perspective of what it was like to be in one of these things!

claustrophobia...I'd rather drop dead than being inside one of those!!

agreed.........the thought of staying in one of them for more than the time it took to take this picture scares me

Holy moly! :o(

im starting to feel a bit funny now.

disturbing just down right disturbing.

I guess they would have had to wear diapers or be catheterized. Maybe those holes in the side were for tending to those needs. I wonder if the patient could breathe while those holes were open? That would have been truly terrifying if you stopped breathing every time they tended to your bodily functions

truly, I'm glad you all find this disturbing. It means that because of the vaccine, you aren't familiar with all this. It wasn't at all uncommon when I was a kid to see people on crutches who'd had polio as kids. It isn't so common now, thank God. Although it is only beaten back, not gone. AOL news reported five cases among the Amish in Minnesota last week.

"the light at the end of the tunnle"

I think the light is a soap dispenser. :-)

I have commented on other sites about the iron lung and the polio epidemic when I was a kid. It is interesting, though, to see the inside of one of them.

Polio was the first use for the iron lung, but these were used for guys with md

How long/tall were they? I can't imagine that people that were exceptionally tall would be able to fit inside an iron lung, unless they were able to have one specially made. Did they even do that? I mean, I'm about six feet tall (ok, I'm 5'11"), and it doesn't look like I'd fit inside that. But maybe it's one of those cases where they look bigger in person? Someone want to help me clear that up?

i dont get it. why is it so disturbing, these iron lungs helped ppl to survive. its amazing that technology was able to come up with these, back in the day. and u guys keep "freaking out". gawd.

i found some great information online today from 2005 on iron lungs and polio. the title of the web article is "Survivors to Revisit the Polio Scare." you can see the rest of the article, if interested, in their 2005 archive section: http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom
the article publication date is March 10, 2005.

here is the paragraph i would like to quote from the site, and share with you all:

"Inside the iron lung
The so-called iron lung was the first effective treatment for patients so severely paralyzed they couldn't breathe. First used in 1928 in an 8-year-old girl with polio at Children's Hospital Boston, it consisted of a tank made by a local tinsmith and a pair of vacuum cleaner blowers. As the machine breathed for her, the girl revived and later asked for ice cream. Later, as demand grew, hospitals moved to room-sized respirators. ''I had space for four patients all sticking their heads out from this room with their bodies inside,'' wrote Children's physician James Wilson, ''and we could get inside with them and care for them.'' Clinicians also gave care through portholes, initially purchased from a Boston shipyard; if a porthole was opened at the wrong moment, the patient would have his breath knocked out of him. Former patients can describe living in respirators for months on end, never leaving to be bathed or changed, eating flat on their backs, relying on nurses to feed them and mirrors to see around them. During power outages, hospital staff - even doctors - took turns pumping the respirators with a bellows."

omg, imagine having an itch...that would be torture

I am still sleeping in one of these!

http://360.yahoo.com/m...xL2KQ6sG75FYT8GuteNe

See the drop down box upper right and choose "Mars" then "view photos" ;)

Meh, I work in an ICU.
The fact that nearly all posters "freak out" at iron lung pictures as well as morgue fridges, autopsy tables etc and are obsessed by the subject of ECT and mouth gags, gives you an idea why most lay people s**t themselves when they visit very sick relatives in hospitals.

Things that we see every day ( for years ) and are quite ho hum to us - like ventilators, heart by pass stuff and richmond bolts (yes folks, a metal bolt for measuring pressures inside the brain)sticking out of six year olds' skulls etc are downright freaky s**t to the general community. Luckily, it's not freaky to health professionals, it's just a job - caring for the sick until they are well enough to go home.

P.S. A Richmond bolt can save your life when you have an open head injury after being hit by a suburban train. And you can walk out of the unit as if nothing hasppened to you.

Let this be a reminder to new moms. Have yourchild innoculated!!!!!!

Debi G from Oz
I think more to it then that. I think people think to themselves "What if that was me?" I have muscular dystrophy. CMD I have gotten a lot of the same reaction "How can you sleep in that?" I think with the unknown people will keep asking the same questions. I know more about respiratory thing and iron lungs and I know most doctors and nurses would probably think that I don't. Email me @ mydisabilitytalk@hotmail.com

My uncle was stricken with polio at the age of 14. He was placed in the iron lung for one year which saved his life. What people don't understand is the disease cripples and causes complications throughout the person's life. Fortunately, my uncle lived many happy years until he passed away fourteen years ago from complications caused by polio.

Seeing pictures of the Iron Lung brings back memories I will never forget. At the age of Five, I was stricken with polio. I was confined to an Iron Lung for months. It was horrifying for a child alone. Only seeing parents on weekends. But I thank God I survived and have been able to live a good life, with the aid of braces and crutches and now wheelchairs. Thank God for healthy children, America.

wtf thats crazy.

femaledragon, thanks for that post, very interesting.
Yes, some contraptions look freaky to us, but I'm sure that those who suffered from illnesses like polio were glad of them.

Thinking about children being stuck in one of those horrible contraptions brought me to tears. If there is hell on earth, we are looking at it.

Man, that would not be comfortable. Im sad for the people that had to go inside one. My great Aunt had polio but she didn't have to go inside one.

I contracted polio in 1953, at the age of 13. I spent about six months in an iron lung. It doesn't hurt. It is a very gentle form of artificial respiration. You are not claustrophobic, because your head sticks out the end. And, most important, it keeps a person alive. Thank God for the iron lung, and thank God we now have a polio vaccine. But a vaccine only works if people use it. Get your children vaccinated! For more information on polio and the iron lung, go to www.polioassociation.org

I was in one of these when i was 6. I did not know what was happening and I was confused but now I know because I am 11 now.X)

joking.