.within a matter of hours as breathing muscles become immobilised. However, with the iron lung, a massive machine that encases patients and provides air pressure to help the impacted individual's paralysed lungs function, life could continue for years., who died this week at the age of 78. Alexander contracted polio in 1952, when he was just six years old, leaving him paralysed from the neck down.
"The invention of the iron lung irrevocably changed the relationship between humans and machines," says Hannah Wunsch, a critical care physician withand author of The Autumn Ghost, a book that traces how intensive care units and mechanical ventilation are the foundation of modern medical care. "For the first time, an individual struggling to breathe for an extended period of time could receive support, with the machine doing some or all of the work of breathing.
One of the early ventilator developments was pioneered by Bjorn Aage Ibsen. In 1953, Ibsen proposed using "positive pressure" ventilation. In contrast to the iron lung, which relied on negative pressure ventilation that suctioned air into a patient's lungs, positive pressure ventilation would push air into the lungs by hand, without the aid of machine.
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