Full Breakdown
Martha Lillard, the Nation’s Last Iron-Lung Polio Survivor, Dies at 78
7/11/2026, 9:53:38 PM
Final Chapter: Death and Medical Summary
Martha Lillard passed away on June 26 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, at age 78. Her death certificate lists chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome as causes, while her sister, Cindy McVey, attributes the loss to long-haul COVID-19. Lillard had contracted polio in 1953 at age 5, two years before the first U.S. vaccine became available. In her later years she required the iron lung nearly 24 hours a day, especially after two COVID-19 infections reduced her already limited lung capacity to less than 25 percent.
Life Inside the Iron Lung
For more than six decades Lillard lived inside the full-body ventilator, sleeping in a cylinder that moved air in and out of her lungs. She attended grade school two hours a day and completed the rest of her coursework via an intercom system. Despite paralysis of her right arm, she learned to drive, prepared meals, painted, wrote poetry, and composed music using her left hand. A custom trailer enabled family road trips, and during a tornado-induced power outage her husband performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until assistance arrived.
Personal Relationships and Legacy
In an online chat room after the September 11 attacks, Lillard met Egyptian resident Baha Salh. After more than 20 years of correspondence, they married in February 2026 once he secured a visa. McVey described the couple as “soulmates.” Lillard also volunteered with the Humane Society, rescuing abandoned dogs, and maintained an online obituary that noted her artistic pursuits and cause of death.
Official Context
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that a national vaccination campaign beginning in 1955 reduced U.S. polio cases to fewer than 100 annually in the 1960s and declared the disease eliminated in 1979. Lillard’s survival far exceeded early medical predictions that she would not live past her twenties.
Verbatim Quotes
- “They told her she wasn't supposed to live past 20 years old,” — Cindy McVey
- “She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life.” — Cindy McVey
- “I liked it. It felt good to breathe.” — Martha Lillard
- “They usually didn’t like to put children in because [children] fought it, but I didn’t,” — Martha Lillard
- “They were really soulmates,” — Cindy McVey
- “He's extremely brokenhearted.” — Cindy McVey
