Third Grade
Worksheets
Iron Lung
October 12, 1928, was a special day in history. A little girl was very sick. She was in the hospital. The hospital was in Boston. It was a special hospital for children. The little girl was having trouble breathing. Doctors thought that she would die. Thanks to the iron lung, she survived.
The iron lung was a machine. It helped people who could not breathe well on their own. It looked like a tube. It was made of iron. A person lay down inside. There was a hole in one end. The iron lung had a pump. It pumped air into the iron lung. The person's lungs filled with air. When his lungs were full, air was sucked out. It breathed for him.
The iron lung used in the Boston hospital was invented by Philip Drinker. He worked at Harvard Medical School. He was a teacher. The iron lung was invented to help people breathe. In 1928, the iron lung was used to save a little girl. She had a disease called polio. Polio is caused by a virus. It travels all over the body. It hurt the muscles. The girl's lungs had almost stopped working. Within seconds in the iron lung, she was breathing again.
