Martha Mason

Martha Mason (May 31, 1937 – May 4, 2009) was a writer born and based in Lattimore, North Carolina who spent 61 years in an iron lung.

Early life On the 13th of September, during the 1948 epidemic Mason was stricken by polio. A year later, Mason was sent home from the hospital in an iron lung with help from the March of Dimes foundation, which she remained for the rest of her life. She preferred the iron lung to newer ventilators as it did not require intubation, surgery, or hospitalization. Her older brother, Gaston Mason, died of polio three days before her own polio symptoms began.