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Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe symptoms develop such as headache, neck stiffness, and paresthesia. These symptoms usually pass within one or two weeks. A less common symptom is permanent paralysis, and possible death in extreme cases. Years after recovery, post-polio syndrome may occur, with a slow development of muscle weakness similar to what the person had during the initial infection.
Dark Victory is a 1939 American melodrama film directed by Edmund Goulding, starring Bette Davis, and featuring George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, and Cora Witherspoon. The screenplay by Casey Robinson was based on the 1934 play of the same title by George Brewer and Bertram Bloch, starring Tallulah Bankhead.
An iron lung is a type of negative pressure ventilator, a mechanical respirator which encloses most of a person's body and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space to stimulate breathing. It assists breathing when muscle control is lost, or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability. Need for this treatment may result from diseases including polio and botulism and certain poisons.
Richard E. Grant is a Swaziland-born English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller's drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning various awards including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He also received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
Ida Lupino was a British actress, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She is widely regarded as the most prominent female filmmaker working in the 1950s during the Hollywood studio system. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir, The Hitch-Hiker, in 1953.
Sylvia Ann Ibbetson, known professionally as Elizabeth Dawn or Liz Dawn, was a British actress, best known for her role as Vera Duckworth in the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street. First starting on the serial in 1974, she had a recurring role as a factory worker until her husband, Jack, first appeared in 1979. She played the character of Vera for 34 years. For her role in the soap, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 British Soap Awards. She was also appointed an MBE in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours.
Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter was an American actress. She is best known for portraying Ellen Lawson in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) and Martha Kent in Superman (1978). She also appeared in Bewitched (1945), Blood on the Moon (1948), and The World of Henry Orient (1964).
Maura Murphy, née McNamee was an Irish writer. Her autobiography Don't Wake Me at Doyles became a surprise hit upon its publication in 2004.
The history of polio (poliomyelitis) infections began during prehistory. Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the 20th century, the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. Over millennia, polio survived quietly as an endemic pathogen until the 1900s when major epidemics began to occur in Europe. Soon after, widespread epidemics appeared in the rest of the world. By 1910, frequent epidemics became regular events throughout the developed world primarily in cities during the summer months. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyze or kill over half a million people worldwide every year.
Virginia Grace Wilson "Gini" Laurie was a central figure in the 20th century development, in the United States, of the independent living movement for people with disabilities. It is sometimes said that she was one of its two "grandmothers"—the other one being Mary Switzer, who was in charge of vocational rehabilitation at the national level from 1950 to 1970.
Dianne Odell was a Tennessee woman who spent most of her life in an iron lung. She contracted bulbospinal polio at age 3 in 1950 and was confined to an iron lung for the rest of her life. Due to a spinal deformity caused by the polio, she was unable to change to a portable breathing device introduced in the late 1950s. Odell's condition was not as severe in youth and she could spend short periods outside the machine until her 20s; from then on she needed to be in it 24 hours a day. Caregivers could still slide Odell's bedding out of her iron lung for basic nursing care but only briefly.
Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits, she was known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok. Late in her life, she appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have exhibited compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy. This facet of her character contrasted with her daredevil ways and helped to make her a noted frontier figure. She was also known for her habit of wearing men's attire.
Martha Mason was a writer born and based in Lattimore, North Carolina who spent 61 years in an iron lung.
June Margaret Middleton was an Australian polio survivor who spent more than 60 years living in an iron lung for treatment of the disease. In 2006, Guinness World Records recognised her as the person who had spent the longest amount of time living in an iron lung. This record has since been surpassed by American lawyer Paul Alexander and Martha Lillard.
The Sessions is a 2012 American drama film written and directed by Ben Lewin. It is based on the 1990 article "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate" by Mark O'Brien, a poet paralyzed from the neck down due to polio, who hired a sex surrogate to lose his virginity. John Hawkes and Helen Hunt star as O'Brien and sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene, respectively.
Lillard is a surname of French origin. Through Norman and Huguenot migration, it is found mostly in the British isles and their colonies. Notable people with the surname include:
Ann Adams (1926-1992) was an American artist who, after becoming almost fully paralyzed due to poliomyelitis, re-learned to draw by using a pencil held in her mouth.
Paul Richard Alexander was an American paralytic polio survivor, lawyer and writer. The last man to live in an iron lung, he contracted polio in 1952 at the age of six. Alexander earned a bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor at the University of Texas at Austin, and was admitted to the bar in 1986. He self-published a memoir in 2020. He died in 2024.
Patricia Kirkland was an American actress.
References
- ↑ "Martha Ann Lillard Essay – 1564 Words | Internet Public Library". www.ipl.org. Archived from the original on June 29, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- 1 2 3 Kelly, Erin (October 25, 2021). "Decades after polio, Martha is among the last to still rely on an iron lung to breathe". NPR . Archived from the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- 1 2 "60 years in an iron lung: US polio survivor worries about new global threat". NBC News. November 30, 2013. Archived from the original on April 4, 2024. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
- ↑ "Woman who once got trapped in iron lung said 'it's like being buried alive'". LADbible. July 4, 2023. Archived from the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- 1 2 Synar, Edwyna (November 26, 2021). "Remember the Ladies: Survival in an iron lung". Muskogee Phoenix. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- 1 2 Moreno, Lucas (March 17, 2024). "The American woman is the only person who still lives with an iron lung". Mediarun Search. Archived from the original on March 17, 2024. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- ↑ "My Iron Lung (Revisited)". Radio Diaries. March 21, 2024. Archived from the original on May 3, 2024. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- ↑ Jiménez, Jesus (March 13, 2024). "Lawyer, Author and TikTok Star Spent 72 Years in an Iron Lung". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved April 14, 2024.