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On this day, October 12, 1928, the iron lung was used for the first time.
Last edited Sat Oct 12, 2024, 02:16 PM - Edit history (1)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (both in 2024 and in 2023)• 1928 – The iron lung (example pictured), a type of medical ventilator, was used for the first time, to treat an eight-year-old girl paralyzed by polio.
Emerson iron lung
Emerson iron lung
Iron lung
{snip}
Invention and early use
Initial development
Iron lung from the 1950s in the Gütersloh Town Museum.
In Germany, fewer than a dozen of these breathing
machines are available to the public.
In 1670, English scientist John Mayow came up with the idea of external negative pressure ventilation. Mayow built a model consisting of bellows and a bladder to pull in and expel air. The first negative pressure ventilator was described by British physician John Dalziel in 1832. Successful use of similar devices was described a few years later. Early prototypes included a hand-operated bellows-driven "Spirophore" designed by Dr Woillez of Paris (1876), and an airtight wooden box designed specifically for the treatment of polio by Dr Stueart of South Africa (1918). Stueart's box was sealed at the waist and shoulders with clay and powered by motor-driven bellows.
Drinker and Shaw tank
A Drinker iron lung displayed at the chapel of Netley Hospital, 2018
The first of these devices to be widely used however was developed in 1928 by Phillip Drinker and Louis Shaw of the United States. The iron lung, often referred to in the early days as the "Drinker respirator", was invented by Philip Drinker (1894–1972) and Louis Agassiz Shaw Jr., professors of industrial hygiene at the Harvard School of Public Health. The machine was powered by an electric motor with air pumps from two vacuum cleaners. The air pumps changed the pressure inside a rectangular, airtight metal box, pulling air in and out of the lungs. The first clinical use of the Drinker respirator on a human was on October 12, 1928, at the Boston Children's Hospital in the US. The subject was an eight-year-old girl who was nearly dead as a result of respiratory failure due to polio. Her dramatic recovery, within less than a minute of being placed in the chamber, helped popularize the new device.
{snip}
{snip}
Invention and early use
Initial development
Iron lung from the 1950s in the Gütersloh Town Museum.
In Germany, fewer than a dozen of these breathing
machines are available to the public.
In 1670, English scientist John Mayow came up with the idea of external negative pressure ventilation. Mayow built a model consisting of bellows and a bladder to pull in and expel air. The first negative pressure ventilator was described by British physician John Dalziel in 1832. Successful use of similar devices was described a few years later. Early prototypes included a hand-operated bellows-driven "Spirophore" designed by Dr Woillez of Paris (1876), and an airtight wooden box designed specifically for the treatment of polio by Dr Stueart of South Africa (1918). Stueart's box was sealed at the waist and shoulders with clay and powered by motor-driven bellows.
Drinker and Shaw tank
A Drinker iron lung displayed at the chapel of Netley Hospital, 2018
The first of these devices to be widely used however was developed in 1928 by Phillip Drinker and Louis Shaw of the United States. The iron lung, often referred to in the early days as the "Drinker respirator", was invented by Philip Drinker (1894–1972) and Louis Agassiz Shaw Jr., professors of industrial hygiene at the Harvard School of Public Health. The machine was powered by an electric motor with air pumps from two vacuum cleaners. The air pumps changed the pressure inside a rectangular, airtight metal box, pulling air in and out of the lungs. The first clinical use of the Drinker respirator on a human was on October 12, 1928, at the Boston Children's Hospital in the US. The subject was an eight-year-old girl who was nearly dead as a result of respiratory failure due to polio. Her dramatic recovery, within less than a minute of being placed in the chamber, helped popularize the new device.
{snip}
Fri Aug 16, 2024: On this day, August 16, 1955, Boston's polio epidemic hit a high of 480 cases.
Fri Apr 12, 2024: On this day, April 12, 1955, it was announced that the polio vaccine Jonas Salk developed was safe.
From appalachiablue:
Thu Mar 14, 2024: Paul Alexander - In Iron Lung for Polio Since 1952, More Than 70 Yrs - Dies At 78: NPR
Thu Oct 12, 2023: On this day, October 12, 1928, the iron lung was used for the first time.
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