Sign Up And Receive Our Latest Updates!
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
The Iron Lung in New Zealand
The development and impact
What was the Iron Lung and why was it needed?
The Iron Lung, also known as a Drinker Respirator or cabinet respirator, was used between the 1930s and the 1950s to help those who lost their ability to breathe due to muscle paralysis caused by polio. It was also used for the treatment of other cases, the most common being gas poisoning, asphyxiation caused by partial drowning and drug poisoning.
Poliomyelitis, more commonly known as polio, is a highly contagious viral infection that mainly affects the nerves in the spinal cord and brain. In rare cases of polio, the worst symptoms can include muscle paralysis. If the paralysis affected the chest muscles, the patient couldn’t breathe unaided. To keep them alive, a mechanical respirator was needed, which led to the development of the iron lung.
How the Iron Lung Worked
The Iron Lung was first developed in the United States in the 1920s by Professor Dr. Philip Drinker and Dr. Louis Agassiz Shaw at Harvard School of Public Health. The iron lung was a metal box designed to help patients breathe when their lungs could not. The device worked by having the patients lie inside, with only their head exposed. An airtight rubber collar was placed around their neck. On the side of the metal box there were circular portholes, through which the patient lying on a sponge mattress could be cared for. The machine would rhythmically change the air pressure inside the iron lung, so the patient’s chest would move up and down as the pressure decreased and increased. This revolutionary medical device was first used in Boston Children’s Hospital and soon became a common sight in hospitals by the mid-20th century. Although the iron lung was important for breathing support, only 50% of patients who ended up in one survived, as the iron lung couldn’t prevent complications like pneumonia.
The Iron Lung in New Zealand
In New Zealand, the Iron Lung was extremely hard to obtain. Shipping from the United States was exceedingly expensive, as it was the time of the Great Depression. So, Fred C. Jacobs, an Auckland Hospital Board engineer, designed his version of the iron lung, and his son Bill Jacobs built it. The total cost to build it was only about 60 pounds. The iron lung was built between 1935 and 1936 at the Auckland Hospital workshops using vacuum pumps made for milking cows; it soon became the first iron lung in New Zealand. As of November 1938, the iron lung had saved six lives in New Zealand. In December 1939 it saved the life of six-year-old Donald Nair, who couldn’t be treated at the Wellington Hospital because the iron lung there had been in use. He was flown to Mangere Aerodrome, where an ambulance was waiting to take him to Auckland Hospital. He was treated in the locally made iron lung in the hospital for eighty days. He made a remarkable recovery and was later able to return home.
After the development of the polio vaccine in 1955 and the invention of modern respirators, the iron lung has slowly faded into medical history. The last known use of the iron lung in New Zealand was around the 1950s. Its legacy lives on as one of the most important devices in medical history, and it has continued to shape modern medical equipment to this day.
In 2025, Our Health Journeys continued our partnership with Saint Kentigern College in Auckland to challenge a number of students to conduct research into an aspect of the medical history of Aotearoa New Zealand. The students, ranging from Years 8-13, produced their research in written, oral, or video format and the top projects were chosen for publication to Our Health Journeys.