How to Use iron lung in a Sentence

iron lung

noun
  • Nobody wants to go back to the days of iron lungs.
    — Hollie Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Sep. 2025
  • And another one of the kids was in an iron lung.
    — Sarah Digregorio, Vanity Fair, 16 Jan. 2026
  • Parents lived in fear their children would end up in an iron lung.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 23 Apr. 2018
  • The last man to live in an iron lung died in Dallas on Monday.
    — Brandi D. Addison, Austin American-Statesman, 14 Mar. 2024
  • Many of those who are still living today are in a wheelchair, and a few are still in an iron lung.
    — Sara Reardon, Scientific American, 19 Aug. 2022
  • Must-reads Paul Alexander spent seven decades in an iron lung.
    — USA TODAY, 14 Mar. 2024
  • The process by which the iron lung functioned was simple and effective.
    — Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023
  • External devices, such as the iron lung, were in short supply.
    — Clayton Dalton, The New Yorker, 27 May 2020
  • The most ill patients were placed in an iron lung to assist their respiration.
    — Dawn Mitchell, Indianapolis Star, 29 May 2020
  • The then-high school freshman spent four months hospitalized in a large ward with other kids, some in iron lungs.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Those who survived the virus might be left using crutches, confined to a wheelchair, or needing an iron lung.
    — Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 12 Dec. 2021
  • At the time, about 80 percent of bulbar polio patients died comatose in the iron lung.
    — Bradley M. Wertheim, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 June 2020
  • Getting patients into and out of early iron lungs was cumbersome.
    — Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Before the iron lung was deployed, however, doctors worried about its use.
    — Hannah Wunsch, STAT, 22 Aug. 2021
  • This essay is adapted from a longer version that details the development of the iron lung.
    — Hannah Wunsch, STAT, 22 Aug. 2021
  • There was great fear that your child would be struck down by polio, that your child would be paralyzed, and that your child would have to be placed in an iron lung.
    — Maralyn Mosley, al, 20 Jan. 2021
  • It is believed only two people in the United States use an iron lung today.
    — Marc Bona, cleveland, 8 June 2020
  • Kaufer’s old enough to remember the polio epidemic, and visiting a close friend in an iron lung.
    — Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2020
  • Others were consigned to life in an iron lung, a type of ventilator that encased a child’s body to ease breathing.
    — New York Times, 25 Dec. 2020
  • Newspapers ran images of children struggling in leg braces or lying prostrate in iron lungs.
    — Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, Washington Post, 4 May 2020
  • Unable to breathe on his own, he was placed in an iron lung, a large metal cylinder that varies air pressure to stimulate breathing.
    — Alexandra Banner, CNN, 14 Mar. 2024
  • No one wants to see a return to the dark days when children lay in hospital wards, paralyzed, confined to ghastly iron lungs.
    — Michael Sheldrick, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024
  • Instead of being imprisoned by the medical device that keeps him alive, the man in the iron lung has used it as a springboard to thrive.
    — David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Nov. 2021
  • Children would eagerly begin their school breaks with a bicycle, scooter or kite and end them in crutches, braces or an iron lung.
    — Ainissa Ramirez, Scientific American, 17 June 2021
  • Hospitals established polio wings for iron lung machines to keep the lungs pumping oxygen.
    — Dawn Mitchell, Indianapolis Star, 16 Mar. 2020
  • Today, Alexander is thought to be one of only two people still using an iron lung, reports the Guardian.
    — David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Nov. 2021
  • One state-of-the-art iron lung ventilator, and a few older, mostly impotent, devices.
    — Bradley M. Wertheim, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 June 2020
  • Tools such as the iron lung saved thousands of polio victims’ lives when the disease caused respiratory failure.
    — Christian Millman, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2019
  • Despite the challenges, Alexander still managed to make significant strides in life while inside the iron lung.
    — Brandi D. Addison, Austin American-Statesman, 14 Mar. 2024
  • During the covid pandemic, some medical practitioners began taking a new look at the old iron lung.
    — Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'iron lung.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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