Oklahoma woman Martha Lillard, last US polio patient using iron lung, dead at 78

Source: New York Post

An Oklahoma woman, who was the last American patient to rely on an iron lung to live after she was diagnosed with polio at 5 years old, has died. Martha Lillard, who spent most of her life using the once-common breathing machine after contracting polio as a child, died June 26 at age 78 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, her sister Cindy McVey told The Associated Press. “They told her she wasn’t supposed to live past 20 years old,” McVey told the outlet on Friday.