By WOODY BAIRD,AP Posted: 2008-05-29 08:17:16
MEMPHIS, Tenn. May 2 – 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 family’s residence near Jackson, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, brother-in-law Will Beyer said. [more]
