21 Replies to “The Last Of The Iron Lungs”

  1. I thought these were gone long ago.
    During the big polio epidemic in Manitoba during the 1950’s,(1953 I think) my Uncle Angus who was an RCAF pilot flying C-119’s flew for 72 hours straight to deliver these things to Winnipeg from Boston. He and the other pilots literally flew until they dropped.
    He was awarded a medal for this service.
    I met a lady the other day who doesn’t believe in vaccinations, and I related to her my Mother’s story of how they used to dread the coming of Spring because that brought polio and diphtheria . Mom said they thanked God and Jonas Salk when the polio shot became available. One of my best friends caught polio in 1953,and his legs were twisted so he could walk,but that was about all, no running or sports for him.
    I remember my whole school lining up across the doctor’s office and down the stairs into the street waiting for the “shot”.
    The lady replied that it was all BS,just a conspiracy by the pharmaceutical companies and the government to make money
    I didn’t bother to argue.

  2. I escaped an even worse fate, THE worst. my mother contracted the milder non-paralysing form (what Im told) a day or 2 *after* I was born 66 years + ago.
    one of very many near misses in my charmed life. Who do I attribute THAT factoid to? near misses and tragedy avoided by a whisker. I do NOT engage in daredevil thrill seeking. “thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”
    are we in for another polio epidemic when the antivaccs start running the school cystem?

  3. I’m afraid to say that if these New Age morons get their way, we’ll be seeing those again within our lifetimes.

  4. As a once upon a time Rotarian, I’m very proud of the colossal campaign they undertook to eliminate polio from the face of this earth.
    “In 1985, Rotary launched its PolioPlus program, the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication through the mass vaccination of children. Rotary has contributed more than. $1.7 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 2.5 billion children in122 countries.”
    https://www.rotary.org/en/what-you-don%E2%80%99t-know-about-campaign-end-polio

  5. It is sad that there is this ignorance.
    In our small rural community not far from Saskatoon there are at least half a dozen of people that I know of that had polio. All are in their sixties now, have different degrees of mobility, and for all life is harder than for the rest of us

  6. Exactly. And the government healthcare system won’t provide iron lungs to anyone who doesn’t meet the maximum BMI standards. And must agree to only use green power for their lung machines… including brownouts … which will be chalked up to nature’s way of thinning the parasitic human infestation of the pristine natural planet … shrug.

  7. Good story!! I just cringe when I hear people refuse vaccinations. I lived on a Sask. farm when I grew up. Within a 6 mile radius of our place, we had two kids who were crippled by polio. One still lives across the street from me and struggles just to get in his vehicle. At least two others contracted tuberculosis and had to live in Fort San near Regina for two years. One still needs oxygen every night before going to bed.
    Vaccinations are not only about you and me. They’re designed to stop the spread of the disease. My Grandparents survived the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.

  9. In the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw, there is an iron lung that a local farmer built for his young daughter who came down with polio. That home-made machine saved her life.

  10. In the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw, there is an iron lung that a local farmer built for his young daughter who came down with polio. That home-made machine saved her life.

  11. The witchdoctors didn’t stop tonsillectomies because their cars were paid off…
    https://www.naturalnews.com/042170_polio_pandemic_tonsillectomies_surgical_procedure.html
    Between 1915 and the 1960s, a tonsillectomy was the most common surgery in the United States, even though the function of the tonsils was fairly ambiguous and misunderstood. By 1938, however, a clear connection was made between the procedure and polio epidemics raging across the land. Today, vaccines receive the credit for all but eliminating this dreaded disease, yet could the decline of tonsillectomies actually be the true reason?
    As stated by the the World Health Organization, polio cases have decreased by over 99 percent since 1988. Vaccines are given credit for this extraordinary decline, but it’s interesting to note that tonsillectomies also fell during this period of time. For example, in the United Kingdom the tonsillectomy rate dropped by 38 percent between 1991 and 2011. Curiously, polio epidemics were quite rare before the 20th century, as were tonsillectomies.

  12. Today, vaccines receive the credit for all but eliminating this dreaded disease, yet could the decline of tonsillectomies actually be the true reason?
    No, because polio was endemic world wide with highest incidence and prevalence in third would countries with inadequate sanitation and water treatment, IOW areas where tonsillectomies were rare to non-existent.
    Polio is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, neither of which are known for a high rate of childhood tonsillectomies and vaccination programs are high adventure.

    Islamist militants oppose vaccination, saying it is a Western conspiracy to sterilise Pakistani children.
    In January, 15 people were killed in a bomb attack on a vaccination centre in the south-western city of Quetta…
    During the past two years, Taliban militants have killed 63 health workers and members of the security forces assigned to protect them.

    Curiously, polio epidemics were quite rare before the 20th century…
    No, they were not reported as the surveillance was nigh nonexistent.
    Can we still contract TB??
    Absolutely. One of the difficulties of unchecked “migration” from endemic areas is the importation of active cases. It is not uncommon for service members or aid workers in endemic areas either to become converters, or have active disease.

  13. I remember when small cardboard models of iron lungs were found next to cash registers to raise funds for polio research. That probably would have been from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s.

  14. “The witchdoctors didn’t stop tonsillectomies because their cars were paid off…”
    …because that couldn’t have anything to do with better antibiotics and better delivery systems right?
    Tonsilectomy -causes- polio now? Its all the doctor’s fault? Yet you complain about the anti-vaxers.
    Okay Strad, how would one design a study to disprove the tonsilectomy theory? A simple chart review correlating polio to tonsilectomy would be a good place to start. Did they do that, in the article? Or did they just bloviate about the relative rates of polio vs. a surgical procedure? Since its Natural News, I’m thinking bloviation.
    If a guy is yelling and pounding the table, he’s got nothing.

  15. Here’s what I found interesting from the article:
    “These days her biggest concern is the canvas spiral collar that creates the seal around her neck. She used to have to replace them every few months after they wore out and stopped keeping a seal. Back then she could get them for a few dollars each, but she recently bought two from Respironics for a little more than $200 each. She said the company wouldn’t sell her any more because they only have ten left. For years she’s been trying to find someone to make a new collar.”
    For years she’s been unable to find anyone to replace a rubber gasket collar? While Phillips is contractually responsible for fixing the machines? This is interesting.
    “Over the years, Lifecare and Respironics have tried to get more polio survivors to use alternative breathing aids—devices that were newer, cheaper, easier to service, and didn’t require parts that were no longer manufactured. In 2004, Respironics gave iron lung users three options: transition to another ventilator device, keep using the iron lung but know that Respironics may not be able to repair the device, or accept full ownership and responsibility of the iron lung and find someone else to repair it. According to Post-Polio Health International, responses “ranged from ‘it is understandable that repairing a device made that long ago would be difficult’ to ‘a multi-million dollar company should be able to just make parts.’”
    Yes, a multi-million dollar company SHOULD be able to make parts, particularly a canvas reinforced neoprene collar from the 1950’s. Some lady with a sewing machine could make one, given the materials.
    But they -won’t- make the parts. Despite contractual obligation and bad press, they won’t. Also despite the obvious fact that a negative-pressure respirator machine has some advantages over a positive pressure machine, not limited to the effect on lung tissue. They spend more on coffee than this would cost.
    Meaning, there is a malign morality at work in this company. Important safety tip for investors and medical machine purchasers, I’d say.

  16. “Meaning, there is a malign morality at work in this company. Important safety tip for investors and medical machine purchasers, I’d say.”
    Fantom, you haven’t provided me with a film clip yet, of a tractor trailer driver lifting a solid axle yet1 And so again, you bark off about that which you have no clue. Try taking IE course AND then get back to me.
    STRAD, you take the same IE course, and then come in here and tell us just how stupid your comment is.
    And we complain about libtard stupidity!!!!!

  17. My sister and I believe that the world is long overdue for a major epidemic which hopefully will thin the stupidity out of the population. I remember working as a summer housekeeping relief at the University of Alberta Hospital in the 1960’s. The hospital had 2 Iron Lungs. Yes, they kept you alive, but really, it was no real life – both patients were skeletons with long fingernails (I was 16 – this is what I remember the most). I believe in vaccinations!

  20. I figure a farmer could make a canvas collar from swather canvas or maybe a rubber collar out of an old inner tube. Farmers can build anything.
    Somebody should just ask them. I’m serious.

  21. “These factors also increase your risk if you haven’t been vaccinated: Having had your tonsils removed (tonsillectomy)”
    Nice try. Because what you said was: “Today, vaccines receive the credit for all but eliminating this dreaded disease, yet could the decline of tonsillectomies actually be the true reason?”
    And clearly, the answer to that question is no, it couldn’t be. You’d need to be an idiot to think that it could.
    Polio still exists, all over the world, where they don’t have tonsilectomy procedures because they don’t have modern medicine.
    See? High intelligence really is good for something.

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