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Story summary
- Martha Lillard, 78, died on June 26 in Oklahoma, ending U.S. polio patients’ use of iron lungs.
- Her sister Cindy McVey said long-haul COVID-19 contributed, while the death certificate listed chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome.
- After two COVID infections, Lillard spent the last two years almost continuously in the iron lung, with lung capacity falling below 25 percent.
