Martha Ann Lillard has passed away at the age of 78.
The last known polio survivor in the US to rely on an iron lung died recently, leaving many of her loved ones heartbroken.
Lillard reportedly contracted polio in the year 1953 when she was just five years old. This is a mere two years before the life-saving vaccine became widely available in the US. This disease left her with 25% lung capacity, paralysis in the right arm, and scoliosis.
While other survivors transitioned to modern ventilators, she found them ineffective and continued to make use of her 1940s-era negative-pressure iron lung for nearly a decade, needing it 24 hours a day.
In her later years, she battled post-polio syndrome and even contracted COVID-19. Her official cause of death was revealed to be complications due to long COVID.