America's Last Iron Lung Patient Dies at 78, Closing a Chapter on Polio

A Life Doctors Said Would End at 20

Martha Ann Lillard, born June 8, 1948, was an American polio survivor who became the last known person in the United States to still rely on an iron lung — a distinction she held after contracting polio in 1953 at just five years old. She died on June 26 in Oklahoma. Her passing doesn't just mark the loss of one woman — it closes a living, breathing connection to one of the most terrifying public health crises in American history.

"They told her she wasn't supposed to live past 20 years old," said her younger sister, Cindy McVey. "She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life." That she did, by nearly six decades. Her death certificate lists causes as chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome, though McVey attributes her sister's death to the effects of long-haul COVID-19.

Life Inside the Machine

Lillard slept in the iron lung cylinder that encased her body, as the air pressure in the chamber forced air in and out of her lungs. The disease left her paralyzed from the neck down and required her to use the machine to help her breathe while she slept. For the past two years of her life, she was in the iron lung nearly 24 hours a day. She had contracted COVID-19 twice during the pandemic, which confined her even further to the machine.

Despite those extraordinary constraints, Lillard refused to be defined by them. As a child, she went to grade school for two hours a day and was tutored the rest of the time, later attending Shawnee High School through a phone system that let her interact with teachers and classmates via intercom. Her family took road trips to Missouri thanks to a custom trailer, with her father calling ahead to hotels to confirm their doors were wide enough for the machine — and Lillard was even able to drive for a time.

Lillard, who wrote poetry and volunteered with the Humane Society, had just 25% lung capacity before she was diagnosed with COVID. She spent much of her time alone, painting, watching old Hollywood movies, and caring for her beagles.

A Love Story Spanning Two Decades and Two Continents

The internet allowed Lillard to meet her future husband. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she wanted to understand more about what had happened, and in a chat room she met a man in Egypt, communicating with him online for more than 20 years. Lillard married Baha Salh in February 2026 after he was finally able to obtain a visa to travel to Oklahoma. "They were really soul mates," McVey said. "He's extremely brokenhearted."

Early in the 21st century, Lillard had been trapped in her iron lung when an ice storm hit Oklahoma and her emergency generator failed, leaving her without heat. She struggled to call 911, later describing the experience as "like being buried alive almost." In 2025, a tornado caused another power outage and her generator failed again; her husband saved her life by giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until emergency help arrived.

The End of an Era

Polio was once one of the nation's most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. Vaccines became available starting in 1955, and a national vaccination campaign cut U.S. cases to fewer than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. By 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S. After the death of Paul Alexander on March 11, 2024, Lillard had become the last known person in the United States to still rely on an iron lung.

In recent years, McVey and Lillard had been desperate to find someone who could fix the iron lung — one of several she had used over her lifetime. "But since she's the last one, we don't need that anymore," McVey said through tears. With Martha Lillard's death, the iron lung — once a symbol of both devastation and survival — is now a relic of history. Her life stands as a testament to what vaccines made possible, and a reminder of what happens when they don't exist.