Martha Lillard, who became reliant on an iron lung at the age of five following a polio diagnosis, passed away on June 26 in Oklahoma. According to her sister, she was the last polio patient in the U.S. to use such a device and was 78 years old at the time of her death.
“They told her she wasn’t supposed to live past 20 years old,” shared Cindy McVey, Lillard’s younger sister, with The Associated Press. “She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life.”
McVey believes her sister’s death was influenced by the lingering effects of long-haul Covid-19. The death certificate cites chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome as causes, McVey noted.
Lillard’s life was largely confined to an iron lung, a cylindrical chamber that helped her breathe by adjusting air pressure around her body. During her childhood, she attended grade school for limited hours and received tutoring at home. Her high school education at Shawnee High School was facilitated by a phone system that enabled her to communicate with teachers and classmates through an intercom.
Her family’s determination ensured she could participate in road trips to Missouri, using a custom trailer. Her father would call ahead to hotels to ensure they could accommodate the iron lung. Lillard also learned to drive for a period.
“To me, it was just normal,” McVey, now 75, reflected.
Polio, once a highly feared disease in the U.S., caused thousands of cases of paralysis annually, primarily affecting children. Vaccines were introduced in 1955, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national vaccination campaign reduced cases to fewer than 100 per year in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. By 1979, polio was considered eliminated in the U.S., no longer spreading routinely.
The advent of the internet allowed Lillard to educate herself on various topics, including her own condition, which had left her paralyzed from the neck down. Through therapy, she regained partial movement in her left arm and some use of her legs, although she could only move her left arm side to side. Despite these limitations, she lived independently for many years, even preparing her own meals.
The internet also played a role in her personal life, enabling her to meet her future husband. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Lillard sought to understand the events better and found herself in an online chat room where she connected with a man in Egypt. They communicated online for over 20 years, McVey said.
In February, Lillard married Baha Salh after he secured a visa to visit Oklahoma. “They were really soul mates,” McVey commented. “He’s extremely brokenhearted.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, Lillard contracted Covid-19 twice. Prior to the illness, her lung capacity was below 25%. In the final five years of her life, she was mostly homebound as breathing became increasingly difficult. For the last two years, she was confined to the iron lung nearly around the clock, McVey said.
McVey described her sister as highly artistic and creative, noting she wrote poems and composed songs. Lillard penned her own obituary, now available online through a funeral home, mentioning her volunteer work with the Humane Society. “She was an avid Beagle lover and assisted in animal rescue as a cross poster on Facebook,” Lillard wrote.
She later revised her obituary to include that she “died of long-haul Covid 19,” with McVey adding the date of her passing.
In recent years, McVey and Lillard struggled to find someone to repair the iron lung, one of several Lillard had used throughout her life. “But since she’s the last one, we don’t need that anymore,” McVey tearfully remarked.
— Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
