An iron lung is a large machine that enables a person to breathe. Nearly the whole body, except for the head, fits into one of these machines. The machine is airtight and creates a negative pressure inside which increases the volume of the chest cavity and pulls in air through the mouth. Then the pressure inside the iron lung increases, causing the air to be expelled again.
Iron lungs were used in the past for victims of polio, a virus that paralyses muscles, including the diaphragm needed for breathing. Many polio patients used the machines only during the acute phase of the disease; the muscle action would later slowly return. Some would go on to use the machine only at night, others had to use it permanently. The first time an iron lung was used was on October 12, 1928 at Children's Hospital, Boston.
The use of iron lungs has almost completely ceased. Today, patients with paralysis of the breathing muscles use mechanical ventilators that push air into the airway with positive pressure.
