Martha Lillard, last known US iron lung polio patient, dies aged 78 in Oklahoma

Martha Lillard, believed to be the last person in the United States still relying on an iron lung due to polio, has died at the age of 78 in Oklahoma. She had contracted polio as a child and spent decades dependent on the vintage breathing machine to survive. Iron lungs, which work by creating pressure changes around the body to assist breathing, were largely phased out after the polio vaccine became widespread in the 1950s and 60s. Lillard's life stood as a rare and living reminder of the devastating impact polio had on earlier generations before widespread vaccination. Her passing marks the end of an era tied to one of America's most feared pre-vaccine diseases.