What is the iron lung and how does it work?

What is the iron lung and how does it work?

Alurnet.com – This is an iron lung. An iconic metal box invented by scientists in 1927 that revolutionized respiratory care. But why was it invented? In the early 20th century, Polio was ravaging Europe and North America. The worst cases involved muscle paralysis.

Read More : How Do You Grow Plants In Space

A symptom that when affecting this final chord meant the patients couldn’t breathe, a condition that almost certainly sealed their fate. Enter the iron lung.

A massive airtight metal box wrapped around the body of the patient to make sure their lungs kept doing their job even when their muscles couldn’t.

So how did it work? Patients would lie in cylindrical chamber with only their head exposed while the machine rhythmically changed the air pressure inside the chamber.

As the pressure decreased and increased, the patient’s chest would rise and fall, just like the natural process of breathing. An age-old girl was the first to receive the treatment.

She went from near death to breathing normally within seconds of being put into the box. Despite being a life-saving device, the iron lung wasn’t without limitations.

Patients needed round the clockcare and were confined to the machine, often for weeks or months at a time, which limited their mobility and quality of life.

The iron lung fell out of use with the arrival of the first injectable polio vaccine designated safety use in the US in 1955. Today, 92.5% of children in the US receive a polio vaccine by age 2, but the iron lung was a real hero in its time, keeping people alive when they needed it the most.