United States | News & Politics

9332 readers

433 users here now

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

Last U.S. Polio Survivor in an Iron Lung Dies After the Machine Began to Break Down and No One Could Repair It (people.com)

submitted 1 day ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/usa@lemmy.ml

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

She contracted COVID-19 twice, and then developed long COVID, needing to rely on the iron lung around the clock.

She’d been using an iron lung since the age of 5, since 1953, but what ultimately did her in was the combination of long COVID and iron lung.

Lillard struggled with access to healthcare, and last year, a tornado knocked out power to her iron lung. Her husband, Baha Seleh, gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until help arrived.

If the the health care system worked, or if they were wealthy, she wouldn’t have been done in by a dilapidating iron lung.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sounds more like she was done in by the lack of battery back up. This can't be their first power outage right? Feels like the story is missing some details

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think it’s pretty straightforward. If the health care system worked, or if they weren’t poor, they would have had a battery backup.