Iron Lung – ca. 1940
On this day in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, better known as the March of Dimes. The organization was founded to combat polio, an infectious disease that affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem. In its most severe form, polio can cause paralysis, including paralysis of the muscles involved in breathing.
During polio outbreaks in the 1940s and 1950s, iron lungs like this one were used to treat respiratory failure caused by polio. An iron lung is a type of negative pressure ventilator that helps to stimulate breathing by periodically applying negative air pressure to the patient enclosed inside the machine. This pressure forces the chest cavity to expand and contract, assisting the patient to breathe.
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