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WFU Alum Martha Mason dies
May 5, 2009 | Kathryn Mobley
Wake Forest University Alum Martha Mason spent more than 60 years lying in the device. On May 4th, 2009, she died in her home town of Lattimore. She was 71.
As a child in 1948, Martha contracted polio that left her muscles paralyzed from the neck down. The iron lung's vaccum pumps changed the air pressure pulling air in and out of her lungs so she could breath.
In 2003, former WFDD News reporter Larry Schooler visited Martha in her home. She explained living in an iron lung did not stop her from living. Here's that interview.
Martha was also featured in a 2005 documentary by Wake Forest professor Mary Dalton and ABC News did a piece on Martha in 2008.
Read Martha Mason's obituary from the New York Times
Hear NPR's Michele Norris talk with Mary Dalton about Martha's life
Headlines for April 10, 2009
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