Author:
GB34
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Date Posted: 20:59:25 08/23/15 Sun
>Chapter 13: Garth is looking for article about
>building and artificial lung. I found these two links.
> First one references Marquette in 1940.
>
EDIT:
For some reason the link to the Marquette article won't work. Here is a copy of the PDF article.
The Wooden Lung
In 1940, Marquette General Health System (then known as St. Luke’s Hospital) bore the brunt of a
severe polio epidemic. A high percentage of the affected patients had respiratory involvement
requiring mechanical ventilation. Only one iron lung was located in the entire Upper Peninsula at
the start of the 1940 epidemic. St. Luke’s solution to the crisis ultimately provided help for hospitals
and polio patients throughout the United States.
Polio in Michigan’s UP first appeared in 1938, and by the summer of 1940 a major outbreak was
underway. Records show that the UP had the highest incidence of respiratory involvement, for its’
population, in the United States that year. Children arrived by car, airplane, and train. Even freight
trucks, hearses, and Coast Guard boats were used to transport patients in this remote region of few
roads. More than 81 cases were admitted between August 21 and September 24 of 1940, and at least
23 cases of respiratory paralysis were seen that year. A minimum of 320 cases developed in the
region that summer.
Despite the purchase of an iron lung and the later rental of two others, there were not enough
ventilators to treat the high volume of respiratory cases. Patients in respiratory failure would be
transported by ambulance to the Straits of Mackinac, loaded onto the car ferry, and delivered to the
Lower Peninsula to continue their journey. Many patients died during the 10 to 14 hour trip. A
solution needed to be found, and the answer came through an unusual combination of events.
Maxwell K. Reynolds was a prominent Marquette citizen and trustee of the hospital. Lowell
Reynolds (no relation to Max) worked at St. Luke’s as the hospital engineer. Together, they
designed the first “wooden lung” which saved numerous children throughout the UP and United
States. On August 29 of 1940 Max received a call from St. Luke’s. Two children with respiratory
involvement were deteriorating rapidly, and the iron lung was already in use. Was there any way the
lung could accommodate another patient? Maxwell could see no easy and quick way to do so,
especially while the iron lung was in use. However, Max did have a large machine and wood
working shop, and a dedicated crew of skilled workmen. Lowell, the hospital engineer, came up
with several articles on iron lungs, one of which proposed using a vacuum cleaner as the source of
negative pressure. A plan was quickly worked out. One of the workmen built a wood cabinet large
enough to hold two children. A removable panel was fitted to one side and, except for the two neck
holes, the entire cabinet was sealed air tight. A blacksmith and machinist designed and installed a
hand operated flapper valve to cycle the wooden lung between inspiration and expiration. Finally,
the vacuum cleaner was fitted to provide the negative pressure. Less than four hours after starting
work, the team sent their finished lung to St. Luke’s. One child had died by then, but another patient
was now showing signs of breathing problems. The two remaining children were fitted into the
wooden lung, the vacuum cleaner was turned on, and a nurse operated the flapper valve by hand.
“Does it work? Are they breathing?” The answer to both questions was yes! Volunteers operated
the valve by hand for almost 48 hours before an automatic mechanism, using a store window display
turntable, was developed. Flush with their success, the workmen labored around the clock building
respirators. Several designs were tried - some from wood, others from steel gasoline drums. Some
were powered by vacuum cleaners, others operated as “satellites” with the large Drinker iron lung
providing the negative pressure through attached hoses. They all worked, and eventually St. Luke’s
had a fleet of eight homemade lungs with a capacity of 10 patients. The Children’s Hospital of Boston, Massachusetts was the only hospital with more iron lungs at the time. Power failures were a
common occurrence then, and people from town would line up outside the hospital, day or night, to
run the ventilators by hand until electricity was restored. Funds were raised to pay Max’s workmen
for their ‘round the clock labor. They indignantly refused, saying that they were only doing their
part to help.
Plans for building the wooden lung were written up in medical journals and used throughout the
country. No one patented the design, and no profit was made by anyone involved in the project.
The development was truly a community effort, and one that benefited the entire country.
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