3. The iron lung
For much of the earlier part of the 1900s, Americans were gripped by the fear of a nasty virus, especially as summer turned into late summer when “polio season” began. Public pools were closed, and patrons at movie theaters were warned not to sit next to each other in a futile effort to prevent the spread of the disease. Insurance companies even sold “polio insurance” for newborns. By the 1950s, polio was widespread, so it’s understandable that people were afraid of this horrible virus that caused paralysis and death. In 1952 nearly 60,000 kids were infected with polio, leaving thousands paralyzed. Affecting rich and poor people alike, more than 3,000 died that year.
Along came the iron lung. Also called the tank respirator, it helped patients breathe if polio paralyzed their lung muscles. Invented by Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw, the first iron lung was a tank respirator that provided artificial respiration until the afflicted person could breathe on their own again. It was a process that usually took a couple of weeks. In the1930s, these machines cost $1500, an exorbitant price because that was the going rate for houses back in the day. Nevertheless, in 1959, 1200 people were using tank respirators in the U.S. By 2004, only 39 people needed these machines, largely thanks to a life-saving vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk that upended the virus’s reign in the U.S.