Martha Lillard, last US polio survivor using iron lung, dies at 78

Martha Lillard, the last known person in the United States to rely on an iron lung machine due to polio, died on June 26, 2026, in Oklahoma. She was 78 years old ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}.

Lillard contracted polio at age 5, around 1953 or 1954. The disease left her paralyzed from the neck down, forcing her to use an iron lung to breathe, especially while sleeping ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}. Despite doctors predicting she would not live past 20, Lillard's sister Cindy McVey said, “She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life.” ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}

For much of her childhood, Lillard attended grade school for just two hours each day. She completed the rest of her education through tutoring and joined high school classes remotely using intercom phone systems ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}. Through therapy, she regained limited motion in her left arm and legs, but arm movement was confined to a side-to-side range near her waist ^{[2, 3, 4]}.

Her family adapted a trailer to accommodate the iron lung for travel and researched hotel accessibility to ensure she could move around. For a time, Lillard was able to drive, overcoming her physical challenges ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}.

In February 2026, she married Baha Salh, an Egyptian man she met online. They corresponded for over 20 years before he obtained a visa to travel to Oklahoma. McVey described them as “really soul mates” and said Salh is “extremely brokenhearted.” ^{[3, 4]}

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lillard contracted the virus twice between 2020 and 2022. Her sister attributed part of Martha's passing to complications from long-haul COVID ^{[1, 4]}. Her death certificate lists chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome as causes of death ^{[1, 2, 4]}. Before widespread vaccination began in 1955, polio caused thousands of paralysis cases yearly among US children. The disease was declared eliminated in the US by 1979 ^{[1, 2, 4]}.

At the time of her death, Lillard's lung capacity had declined to around 25% prior to the COVID infections ^[4]. She passed away surrounded by her family in Oklahoma on June 26, 2026 ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}.