The iron lung was a large, cylindrical unit (measuring up to six feet in length) that functioned as a respirator to help patients who couldn’t breathe on their own. Patients would lay down with ...

After being hospitalized, he woke up and found himself inside of an iron lung, which is a respirator that works a person’s diaphragm. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily ...

The iron lung was an invention that helped keep thousands of sufferers alive, by breathing for those who had lost the ability through the degenerative effects of the disease. A small handful of ...

A 27-year-old polio patient is treated with an iron-lung respirator at a hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1954. (Associated Press) 35,542 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it ...