The Iron Lung 1928 – The First Breathing Machine

The iron lung, besides being one of the first mechanical devices to perform a basic function of the human body, is an early example of biomedical engineering. Biomedical engineering is a field devoted to the use of engineering approaches in medicine. 

The iron lung allows a person to breathe when muscle control has been lost. The iron lung machine:

• Looks like a steel cylinder surrounding the patient.
• Allows the patient's head to protrude from one end through a rubber collar. 
• Has a pump that periodically changes the air pressure inside the cylinder to inflate and deflate the patient's lungs as the patient breathes through the mouth. 
• When the pressure is low, the chest expands and air is drawn into the patient's lungs.

Invented in 1928 by the Americans Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw, the device became famous for its use in treating poliovirus infections, which were widespread in the 1940s and 1950s. It saved the lives of patients who were paralyzed and unable to breathe on their own. Despite its lifesaving properties, Dr. Robert Eiben says that “the iron lung” is remembered with fear. “It seems unlikely that any polio patient did not fear the 'iron lung' experience.” 

Some patients believed that going inside meant almost certain death. Others saw the machine as the equivalent of a coffin. While some patients remained in an iron lung for life, most polio patients were taken out within a month of the acute attack. A polio patient named Paul Alexander lived in the machine for 70 years.

The author Ruth DeJauregui emphasizes the importance of the iron lung and later devices: “From helping paralyzed patients breathe to delivering airborne medication, helping workers avoid hazardous fumes and supplying air to premature babies in a controlled environment, the ventilator is indispensable to modern medicine.”

About the Article Image: A photograph of the iron lung ward for polio patients at the renowned Rancho Los Amigos Hospital (California, 1953). 

Historical Figures Mentioned in the Article: Louis Agassiz Shaw (1886–1940), Philip Drinker (1894–1972)

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