# Iron Lung

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iron-lung/9153>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 25, 2000, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iron-lung/9153 "2000-03-25T16:48:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iron-lung/9153/1 "2000-03-25T16:48:00Z")

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The recent thread about life being better in the 50’s got me to thinking.  
One of the neighbor kids had polio although not as severe as many I guess.I was wondering ,did everyone with polio go into a "iron lung"or just the severe ones. How did it work. I know it helped them breath but how did it work.

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**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iron-lung/9153/2 "2000-03-25T17:33:00Z")

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From EB:

> [@](#):
>
> Mechanical ventilation may be accomplished with negative pressure, as in the iron lung… the individual’s trunk and lower body are placed in an airtight chamber in which a bellows creates a partial vacuum around the chest, thus pulling air into the individual’s unenclosed nose and mouth.

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**Gypsy** : Tom, I don’t get you.  
**Tom Servo** : Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iron-lung/9153/3 "2000-03-25T22:54:00Z")

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And to answer your other question:

As with many other diseases, polio ran the gamut from very severe to very mild.

I had an uncle who contracted it in the 19-teens, and it rendered his right leg useless as a leg. He could walk, but his left leg was his good leg, and his right leg was little more than a stilt or prop.

As described above, the iron lung simulated the diaphragm’s function. We think of breathing with our mouth, nose, and lungs–but it’s really the diaphragm that does the work.

The diaphragm creates negative pressure inside the body when it goes down, filling the lungs with air.

When it goes up, the air comes back out. The iron lung uses the same principle but outside the body.

As I understand it, there are special cases where iron lungs are required today, but most people who have problems breathing on their own do so with respirators (like Christopher Reeve).