Death of Paul Alexander: What is the “steel lung” that made polio treatment possible in the mid-20th century?

Poliomyelitis (or polio) is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. The latter invades the nervous system and can cause complete paralysis within a few hours. The first symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, neck stiffness and pain in the extremities. One in 200 infections results in irreversible paralysis, and 5 to 10% of people with paralytic poliomyelitis die from paralysis of the respiratory muscles.

Although today there are 2 vaccines developed in the 1950s that can protect a child for life and therefore offer a glimpse of the possibility of eradicating the disease, this is not always the case. And scientists have tried to compensate for polio victims’ inability to breathe.

Simulate the breath

In 1931 in the United States, John Haven Emerson modernized the “iron lung” developed in 1928. This device – a kind of box – made it possible to recreate a microenvironment that mimics the way the chest muscles and diaphragm do. Air moving in and out of the lungs. The patient is lying on his back. The head sits on a base outside the machine with a rubber collar around the neck to provide the necessary seal to maintain the pressurized environment. As the pressure in the reservoir increases, air is forced out of the patient’s lungs through the mouth, and air is drawn into the patient’s lungs as the pressure in the reservoir decreases.

“Most patients used their iron lungs for only a few weeks or months, depending on the severity of the polio attack, but those whose chest muscles were permanently paralyzed by the disease were limited for life.

“, we can read on the Ohio State University website. Like Paul Alexander, this American who contracted polio in 1952 at the age of 6 and was “confined” until he died a few days ago.In 1959, 1,200 people in the United States used iron lungs, but as of 2017 there were only three.And for good reason, with the virtual eradication of polio with the development of Jonas Salk’s vaccine in 1952, the use of iron lungs has become largely obsolete.

The Ohio State University however clarifies that “With a global shortage of modern ventilators needed for patients with severe Covid-19, a prototype of a new, easily manufactured version of the iron lung has been developed.“