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DISPATCH #080
■ Dark History

Trapped in Steel: Iron Lung and the Polio Nightmare

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Before modern ventilators, polio could steal a person’s ability to breathe overnight. Thousands of victims were sealed inside iron lungs, massive machines that kept them alive one breath at a time. Some stayed there for years. Some for decades. This is the terrifying true story of the machine that became both a prison and a lifeline.