Family says polio victim spent 50 years in the 750-pound machine

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A woman who spent nearly 60 years of her life in an iron lung after being diagnosed with polio as a child died Wednesday after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her breathing, her family said.

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

Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working for the iron lung after a power failure knocked out electricity to the Odell familys residence.

We did everything we could do but we couldnt keep her breathing, said Beyer, who was called to the home shortly after the power failed. Dianne had gotten a lot weaker over the past several months and she just didnt have the strength to keep going.

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.

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