Martha Lillard, last American using iron lung, dies in Shawnee, Oklahoma

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Martha Lillard, last American using iron lung, dies in Shawnee

KOSU | By Sabrina Thaler
Published July 9, 2026 at 4:00 AM CDT


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Martha Lillard began using an iron lung at age 5 after she contracted polio.

Martha Lillard, the last known American to use an iron lung, died in Shawnee on June 26 at age 78.

Lillard contracted polio as a 5-year-old in 1953, around the height of the virus’ spread in the United States. Doctors at the time frequently used iron lungs to help victims survive the disease, which could paralyze their muscles and deplete their lung capacity.

With the advent of more modern ventilators, iron lungs have become virtually obsolete. Lillard, though, refused to switch to a different respiration system, insisting that the iron lung was the most comfortable option for her.

“So I just wanted people to understand that it’s not, ‘Oh, I want to be in the iron lung.’ That’s not true,” Lillard said in a 2021 episode of Radio Diaries. “I would rather not need it at all. But sometimes when I get in there, I say, ‘Thank you.’ It feels wonderful to get into it. It’s the thing that’s been there that saved my life and I know that it’s the only thing that’s kept me here.”

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Lillard died following a battle with long-haul COVID-19, according to her obituary. Toward the end of her life, she slept in the iron lung for nearly the entire day, KFOR reported.

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