Polio was a disease that devastated the United States in the 1950s, but with concerted efforts towards vaccination, is now on the verge of eradication. With the disease a distant memory for most, it’s ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mona Randolph cannot breathe on her own for very long. The 81-year-old has lived in Kansas City most of her life. When she was 20, she contracted polio. She said she remembers the ...

Martha Lillard had just turned 5 years old when polio incapacitated her. She still uses a form of the ventilator that saved her life as a child... Decades after polio, Martha is among the last to ...

Tucked away in the basement of the Harvard Medical School library is a large capsule-like contraption on wheels that is both a relic of the past and, public health experts warn, a caution for the ...

In the mid-20th century, community spaces like swimming pools and sporting events became a source of anxiety for parents who were frightened by the rampant spread of poliovirus. Their concerns weren’t ...

Wanda Ellis, 3 (seen in the mirror), in an iron lung that helped her breathe. Nurses Jane Kolbay (left) and Adah Morse had to hand pump bellows when two generators failed. A November 1949 ...

A man dubbed “Polio Paul” has lived inside a 600-pound iron lung for seven decades, reportedly refusing to upgrade to a modern machine. Paul Alexander, 77, contracted polio in 1952 when he was 6 years ...

Paul Alexander: held the Guinness World Record for daily use of an iron lung for the longest period - GOFUNDME Paul Alexander, who has died aged 78, managed to attend university, publish a memoir, ...

Paul Alexander, who spent the vast majority of the past 70 years in an iron lung and defied expectations by becoming a lawyer and author, died Monday afternoon at the age of 78, according to his ...

Martha Lillard needed a large respirator called an iron lung to recover from polio, which she caught in 1953. She still uses a form of the device at nights. (Courtesy of Martha Lillard) On June 8, ...

On June 8, 1953, Martha Lillard celebrated her fifth birthday with a party at an amusement park in Oklahoma. A little over a week later, she woke up with a sore throat and a pain in her neck. Her ...