Daily Almanac for Tuesday, October 12, 2021; Day 285 of the Year

On this date in 1928, an Iron lung breathing machine was used for the first time in Boston, MA. Here is a model in a 2004 photo By CDC GHO Mary Hilpertshauser – This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Domain, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

An iron lung, also known as a tank ventilator or Drinker tank, is a type of negative pressure ventilator (NPV); 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 (for example, barbituratestubocurarine).

The use of iron lungs is largely obsolete in modern medicine, as more modern breathing therapies have been developed, and due to the eradication of polio in most of the world. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revived some interest in the device as a cheap, readily-producible substitute for positive-pressure ventilators, which were feared to be outnumbered by patients potentially needing temporary artificially assisted respiration.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

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COURTESY www.almanac.com

1 COMMENT

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