The "iron lung"
The impacts of polio on the body can range in severity. In the most severe cases, the paralysis caused by the virus reaches the respiratory system, making it difficult to impossible for the person to breathe on their own.
There was little effective treatment available for those with polio at this stage until 1928, when the first successful intervention with a mechanical respirator was used on a young polio patient at Boston Children's.
The Drinker tank respirator, which came to be known as the "iron lung," was designed and built by Philip Drinker, an industrial hygienist and professor at Harvard School of Public Health.
How does it work?
An iron lung mimicks the way the respiratory system works to stimulate breathing of the patient, who lays inside an airtight bedchamber of the machine up to their neck. Rhythmic variations in air pressure, created by a bellows that can be operated electrically or manually, mimick the way the diaphragm and muscles of the chest normally do to move air into and out of the lungs. Essentially, the machine "breathes for" the patient.
For a live demonstration of a functioning restored Emerson iron lung - a later model - you can watch this video made in collaboration between the Archives Program and OPENPediatrics at Boston Children's.
Pictured below is the room-sized iron lung the hospital installed in the 1930s, in the basement of the Infant's Hospital that later became the Wolbach building. This respirator could hold up five patients at a time, and nurses could enter directly inside to provide care.
