Polio victim dies after 60 years in an iron lung

Oct 31, 2009, 9:28 GMT

   Sydney - An Australian polio victim confined to an iron lung respirator for the past 60 years has died, a spokeswoman for Melbourne's Thornbury nursing home said Saturday.

   June Middleton, who was 83, entered the Guinness Book of Records three years ago for spending the longest time in an iron lung.

   She celebrated the milestone in April in the company of friends and her dog, Angel.

   'It's hard to explain, but it's what you've got to do - make the most of it, get over the obstacles on the way,' she said at the time.

   Middleton, who spent 21 hours a day in her iron lung, took pleasure in visiting St Kilda beach, where she swam as a child, travelling there in a purpose built van.

   Middleton was rendered a quadriplegic when she contracted poliomyelitis in 1949 at the age of 22, just a week before she intended to marry.

   Thousands of Australians died, and tens of thousands were crippled, in the polio outbreak of 1949.

   Polio has been eradicated from the developed world because children are vaccinated against it at birth.

   There are now few people confined to the telephone-box sized iron lungs, which inflate the lungs of those like Middleton who can't breathe on their own.

   Middleton also had other methods of artificial respiration, but an iron lung was her constant companion since 1949.

   The iron lung was invented by Philip Drinker in 1928 and perfected by fellow American Jack Emerson. It uses air pressure to regulate breathing, taking over the role of the muscles lost to polio.