Last American polio survivor in an iron lung dies at 78

breathe on her own.

Initially, she lived in the iron lung 23 hours a day. She spent one hour a day outside of the iron lung rehabilitating her paralyzed limbs.

“When I got in it, I was tired. Always getting in there felt wonderful,” Lillard remembers.

She came home to Shawnee with the iron lung and eventually taught herself to walk again.

Her right arm continue reading …