19/10/2025
This haunting photo from 1950 shows children lying in iron lungs—massive machines that kept them alive when polio robbed them of the ability to breathe.
Polio was once one of the most feared diseases in the world, striking suddenly and leaving thousands paralyzed each year, mostly children. When the muscles that controlled breathing failed, patients were placed in these cylindrical respirators, sometimes for weeks, months, or even the rest of their lives.
The iron lung worked by creating negative pressure around the body, forcing the lungs to expand and contract. It was lifesaving—but it was also confining. Children could only move their heads, relying on nurses and caregivers for everything else.
Everything changed in the mid-1950s, when Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was introduced. Within a generation, cases plummeted. By the 21st century, polio was eradicated from most of the world.
This photo is a sobering reminder of how far medicine has come—and what life was like before one of history’s most important vaccines
