A woman who used the world-renowned iron lung to survive once described the agony of what her first symptoms of polio were like.
Mona Randolph, from the US, sadly died in February 2019 due to the long delayed effects of polio.
For those unaware, polio is an incredibly serious infection that is thankfully very rare these days thanks to a vaccination programme.
Advert
The devastating infection left Randolph with minimal use of her her right arm and hand, while she had very little strength in her legs and no use of her left arm.
During the day, Randolph would remain in a wheelchair and in the night, she would use the iron lung - an artificial respirator - to help her breathe.
While the machine is a rather strange looking device that has the heads of patients sticking out of it, it's an incredibly advanced bit of kit. It works by pushing air into the lungs of its patients by method of artificial respiration called External Negative Pressure Ventilation (ENPV).
Advert
This would keep Randolph alive for many years more as a motorised lever created negative pressure, which forced her lungs to expand and help improve her breathing.
When the woman of Kansas City, Missouri spoke to the Kansas City Star back in 2018, she was one of three people in the US to survive polo and still use the iron lung.
In fact, the devices are actually not covered by insurance companies or serviced by manufactures, so anybody using the decades old machine are completely responsible for its maintenance.
Randolph needed to use the machine to stay alive though, telling the Kansas City Star she developed polio when she was just 20.
Advert
The first symptoms began for Randolph just three days into a new job, as she experienced an intense headache while waiting for the bus to go home.
"I felt like I had the worst flu in the word," Randolph told the newspaper.
The headache then turned into an extreme sensitivity to light and sound.
Advert
"Everything was off-key. I couldn't stand to hear people talking in the kitchen," Randolph added.
"They'd whisper and it would hurt my ears. I couldn't stand any light. Mom put blankets over the windows."
Things got a lot worse for Randolph on the third day after her headache began, as she got to the point where she couldn't even breathe.
As a result, she was taken to St Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, where she was diagnosed with polio - a year after the US announced a vaccination programme to help combat the serious infection.
Advert
Sadly, Randolph passed away as a result of her condition on 18 February, 2019.
Callum Jones