I was looking at web pages with pictures of iron lungs. People in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s were in these devices when they couldn’t breathe from polio. My question is, were these people in the iron lungs for the rest of their lives? If so, was there no thought of “quality of life” issues?
I suppose it was a question of quality of life versus no life.
Was there any other option?
Could they have legally had care withdrawn as they approached the critical (losing the ability to breathe) phase?
I imagine there have been (and are) mnay thousands of people who are bedridden, but are completely alert and mentally fine who appreciate their quality of life. But stuck in a big tube forever? Not my idea of much of a life.
There are still some of these cuirass ventilators in our U.K. hospitals and their function was to assist the breathing of a very debilitated patient for a period of respite, with the aim of letting the patient recover from the temporary paralysis/weakness and regain their strength.
It was not as efficient as modern ventilation as it lacked any feedback control from the patient, and not all patients did recover. The modern version of this assisted breathing is provided by a face mask and is called Synchronised intermittent continuous positive airway pressure, or SiCPAP
Check out the following link for information on the Iron Lung. 