Poliomyelitis (polio) was mostly associated with childhood in summer months. While humans produce natural antibodies to the virus, a compromised immune system or poor nutrition provided an environment that encouraged virus development through the bloodstream and central nervous system (through contaminated water and/or food). Muscle paralysis was common, and sometimes the paralysis spread to the chest (and lungs, which was often fatal). In 1949, 42,173 cases were reported, with 2,720 deaths.
In circa 1670, a British scientist came up with an idea for a negative-pressure ventilation chamber. Details were fuzzy about why his chamber was never put into production.
Then two professors at Harvard Medical School in the 1920s revived the idea of a machine that could breathe for patients. They produced an airtight chamber, hooked up a vacuum cleaner to it and stuck in a cat (do not try this at home). The apparatus drew air into the cat’s lungs as chamber pressure dropped and forced air out when pressure rose. Then they tried it on a human. An 8-year-old girl presented as a polio sufferer, and she was able to breathe in their chamber experiment but died five days later of heart failure. Even though it was technically successful, it still looked like a failure with the patient’s death – and the project was again sidelined.
Then a Boston doctor contacted them, and asked them to use the experiment in a last-ditch effort to keep his polio patient alive. This time the experiment was successful, and the patient recovered. It was a miracle. The iron lung quickly went into production. It wouldn’t save them all, but it would save many (and it would be 30 more years before the polio vaccine would be developed).
By the 1960s, the iron lung was replaced with positive-pressure ventilators (the model for today’s ventilators).
The last polio case originating in the U.S. was in 1979. (Foreign travelers brought it in from time to time after that; however, the last such case was in 1993.) The U.S. hasn’t vaccinated for polio since 2000.
You may think this as an odd topic for an editorial, but the human drive to improve lives is impressive. As I filled my trash barrel with one election flier after another this past month (with all of the “you said” and “no I didn’t” cat-fight testaments), it was easy to lose sight of the fact that striving and reaching and struggling to improve our world is a noble endeavor, and I appreciate those who run for office and have the drive to improve the system.
It’s important to separate the drive from the tactics. I don’t admire many tactics but the drive itself is noble. A driven, reaching, striving people is who we are. And we don’t give up. It may look like a big hairy cat fight at times, but we’ll figure it out. At long last, we’ll figure it out – just like the iron lung.
And that’s inspiring.
