Power Failure Kills Woman In Iron Lung

Outage Stopped Machine 61-Year-Old Tenn. Woman Spent Most Of Her Life In

(AP)  For almost 60 years, Dianne Odell lived inside a 7-foot-long metal tube, unable to breathe outside of it but determined not to let it destroy her spirit for life.

From her 750-pound iron lung, she managed to get a high school diploma, take college courses and write a children's book about a "wishing star" named Blinky.

"I've had a very good life, filled with love and family and faith," she told The Associated Press in a 1994 interview. "You can make life good or you can make it bad."

Odell, 61, died Wednesday when a power failure shut off electricity to the tube and stopped the pump drawing air into her lungs.

Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working after a power failure knocked out electricity to the Odell family's residence near Jackson, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, brother-in-law Will Beyer said.

"We did everything we could do but we couldn't keep her breathing," Beyer said. "Dianne had gotten a lot weaker over the past several months and she just didn't have the strength to keep going."

Odell, who contracted polio when she was 3 years old, lived with her parents, Freeman and Geneva Odell, and their house was equipped with an emergency generator designed to fire up immediately in a power failure.

"But for some reason, it didn't come on," Beyer said.

Family members even tried an emergency hand pump attached to the iron lung. "Everyone knew what we were supposed to be doing," Beyer said. "It just wasn't working."

Capt. Jerry Elston of the Madison County Sheriff's Department said emergency crews could do little to help. The local power company reported spotty power outages in the area because of storms.

Odell was afflicted with "bulbo-spinal" polio three years before a polio vaccine was discovered and largely stopped the spread of the crippling childhood disease.

Her care was provided by her parents, other family members and aides provided by a nonprofit foundation.

"Dianne was one of the kindest and most considerate people you could meet. She was always concerned about others and their well-being," said Frank McMeen, president of the West Tennessee Health Care Foundation which helped raise money for equipment and nursing assistance for Odell.

Odell accepted her life with grace, McMeen said.

"Everyone she encountered came to her because they cared about her," he said, "so she grew up in her 61 years thinking every person is good."

Odell's iron lung, similar to those used during the U.S. polio epidemics that peaked in the 1950s, was a cylindrical chamber with a seal at the neck. She lay on her back with only her head exposed and made eye contact with visitors through an angled mirror. She operated a television set with a small blow tube and wrote on a voice-activated computer.

The positive and negative pressures produced by the machine forced air into her lungs and then expelled it.

Iron lungs were largely replaced by positive-pressure airway ventilators in the late 1950s that give users much more freedom of movement. But a spinal deformity from the polio kept Odell from wearing a more modern, portable breathing device.

Joan Headley of Post-Polio Health International in St. Louis said about 30 people in the United States still rely on iron lungs but few users are confined to them all the time. No one keeps records, she said, on the longest confinement.

Caregivers could slide Odell's bedding out of her iron lung for basic nursing care but only briefly, McMeen said.

Though Odell could not leave the iron lung, she was able to be moved in the machine. For Odell's 60th birthday, in February 2007, friends and family held a party for her, with about 200 guests, at a downtown hotel in Jackson, a town of about 50,000 residents. She had a 9-foot birthday cake and letters from around the country, McMeen said.

Over the years, Odell's family worked to keep her times in the hospital to a minimum, and she lived her life at home surrounded by loved ones.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete. A visitation was planned Friday at Campbell Street Church of Christ in Jackson.

[hughes521]

I live near Jackson, TN and i know the whole O''Dell family. They are truly amazing people. None of them gave up on Dianne''s dreams, so Dianne CHOSE TO LIVE. Her life should be celebrated. She accomplished more in her situation than some of us do in our entire lives. She will live on in our hearts. Bless the O''Dell family.

[michellem99-2009]

An Angel. I met a person in the 70s that have polio. Her husband went totally blind due to diabtes. She use hand controls to drive. We have talked about this ISSUE and the power is needed to help them live. They are families that will/have dumped their sp needs children on the state. Her family should be thanked. I mean that.

[ms38654ob]

When I was much younger, I had a boss who was similarly afflicted. He got polio when only 16 and just shy by months of the vaccine development. While he was a quadriplegic and spent years in an iron lung, he taught me that regardless of the physical status of one''s body, as long as the mind is clear and free of pain, life is well worth living.

I''m sure this woman''s relatives and friends learned the same important message.

[l8c6]

It''s difficult to imagine...toileting, bathing, maintaining body muscle, preventing bed sores. How is it possible? It''s as difficult to imagine as the woman who spent years on the toilet becoming affixed to the seat or the woman kept in a dungeon with children her father fathered.

[mediabrat60]

It''s amazing what people will endure for a loved one.
I can''t say that i wouldn''t or that I would not want to live my life out in an iron lung either.....I just know it would a difficult decision.
When it''s your child though...i don''t think you give it a second thought.
I am sure those parents didn''t think she would live that long.........58 years in an iron lung.....absolutely incredible story....never having left it to get up and move around.

i cannot even wrap my mind around that.
Completely amazing.

[gopsoccermom]

Lets say prayers for this poor woman. Surely she will be in heaven.

[extremophil]

Holy ***.....I had no idea that there were still Iron Lungs in use.

[tootall10142]

LOOK UP AND YOU CAN SEE HER SHES THE THIRD STAR TO THE RIGHT!

[skeezix06]

I should add that her family must have loved her very much and Dianne doesn''t have to dream of becoming a wishing star any more. She is one.

[skeezix06]

It says they had an emergency generator. They just weren''t able to make it work. Hospital generators are routinely checked to make sure they work but hospitals tend to have more money coming in that this lady''s family no doubt has.

This is an incredibly sad story.

[wvboccie]

Why was there no backup generator?? That is why hospitals have them. Iron lungs arent exactly cheap, a generator would be nothing as an add-on.

Sorry for all she had to endure. How rough to live in an iron lung.

Someone didnt take the necessary precautions.

[nonayabiness]

At first, my thought was, how could someone live this way? I would personally not want to. However, what strength not only this woman, but her family, had to endure to have her live this way, but live.

This woman was encased at the age of 3. Just a baby. And survived for nearly 60 years. It was the only life she knew, and apparently, made the best of it. What grace, courage and dignity the entire family has.

[pinkmenot]

I always admire disabled people and their families who do not allow themselves to be confined by their disability. Many families don''t give their disabled relatives a chance to thrive and instead keep them under constant watch and care, even when the person doesn''t need it. When Dianne was a little girl, it was quite common to ship a disabled child off to a hospital or institution for permanent care, and many of those children grew up and had no life. It''s heartbreaking to read that one of the few children who did make it and had a life despite her severe conditions had to die in such a tragic manner. Many blessings to Dianne''s family who made it possible for her to have a great life. They will miss her dearly.

[pinkmenot]

I always admire disabled people and their families who do not allow themselves to be confined by their disability. Many families don''t give their disabled relatives a chance to thrive and instead keep them under constant watch and care, even when the person doesn''t need it. When Dianne was a little girl, it was quite common to ship a disabled child off to a hospital or institution for permanent care, and many of those children grew up and had no life. It''s heartbreaking to read that one of the few children who did make it and had a life despite her severe conditions had to die in such a tragic manner. Many blessings to Dianne''s family who made it possible for her to have a great life. They will miss her dearly.

[rhs648]

Many of you may be too young to remember the polio scares of the 1950''s. Each day, the media would state how many new cases there were. We were told to avoid crowded swimming pools, crowded parks, and crowded gatherings. My parents would not take us to amusement parks in the summer because of the polio risks. Many people woh contracted polio died, were left crippled, or in severe cases, placed in iron lungs to sustain life. Medical experts were helpless to stop the spread of polio until Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccination for polio. Within a few years, polio was mostly eradicated. Most people in iron lungs lived short lives. It is amazing that this woman survived so long in an iron lung.

[rhs648]

I had a mild case of polio as a child. It has left me with some residual problems such as not being able to raise my right arm above my head and becoming fatigued fairly easily. After reading this story, I will never complain about how polio affected me. This story is heartbreaking. It is horrible that anyone should suffer so much. In spite of that, this woman achieved more than many healthy people achieve. And for those of you who offer your blessings, they are prefered over those who criticize you for bestowing them.

[LIBNY PINEDA G]

Some people suffer more than others, not because God does not love them, but for several reasons, some of those reasons are even unknown to us. Each one of us have a certain amount of time on this planet and after this judgement. If we believe in a Creator, Who is God, then it should not be strange to us that He make us accountable for our actions sooner or later. For the proud and arrogant allowing God to govern his/her life is nonsense. For us, Christians, He is our Wisdom, Power and Glory.

[bellavoce2]

I believe that this woman is an inspiration. Despite her obvious obstacles, good things came from her life. Negative comments do absolutely nothing to honor her accomplishments, so why don''t you ignorant idiots keep your pathetic, closed-minded comments to yourself? If you can''t respect someone who suffered yet made the best life she could, then no one wants to hear from you anyway.

[karl2m]

I can''t even begin to imagine how i would have survived even 1 month of living like this. People like this teach us all a lesson about courage and love. Even just reading this story was inspiring to me. Thank you madam.

[nothappyatall]

"A woman who spent nearly 60 years of her life in an iron lung

Dianne Odell, 61, had been confined to the 7-foot-long machine since she was stricken by polio at 3 years old. "

Their math doesnt add up, "Nearly 60 years" is around 59 years, she was 61 and struck by god''s polio at age 3, so she was in it 58 years. She was in it "nearly 59 years" is what it should have said.


"well i think that now shes in a better place...she lived a very long time with her condition..god bless her

Posted by fush2 "

You gotta be joking right? god BLESS her? this must be the SAME god who destroyed her life with polio, the same one who blew her off and let her rot, yeah god blessed HER alright, with ''blessings'' like that suicide is a highly viable alternative!