How do people in an IRON LUNG go to the bathroom?!
Question: How do people in an IRON LUNG go to the bathroom!?
I just recently found out what an iron lung is!. To my understanding, this device helps patients breathe who otherwise would be unable to!. But where does the waste go!?!?!? Can they ever leave the chamber!?
http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Iron_lungWww@Answer-Health@Com
http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Iron_lungWww@Answer-Health@Com
Answers:
I grew up in a town with a Children's Hospital full of Polio victims!. The people in the iron lungs were encased almost entirely in the things and could not move much!. And the doctor is wrong!! They were NOT removed to die untreated with the family gathered around them!.
I knew a lot of the patients as we were taken as a school group to sing frequently at the hospital, and as church group to help entertain the children suffering from the effects of this dreaded disease!.
I married a polio victim and he is now having some breathing problems along with the loss of his hard earned ability to do things but maybe in a different way from others!. He is suffering from severe pain now!
Ok, the nurses had special diapers for the people in the iron lungs!. There were doors on some of these contraptions for changing the diapers!. The people were taken out from time to time for the lung to be sanitized and the people to be bathed and returned to the lung!.
Yes, it was horrid!!
What would be even more horrid is if people don't have their children immunized from the diseases that were such killers and maimers of the past just because there is a very minute chance they might get something else!. It isn't worth it people!!!Www@Answer-Health@Com
I knew a lot of the patients as we were taken as a school group to sing frequently at the hospital, and as church group to help entertain the children suffering from the effects of this dreaded disease!.
I married a polio victim and he is now having some breathing problems along with the loss of his hard earned ability to do things but maybe in a different way from others!. He is suffering from severe pain now!
Ok, the nurses had special diapers for the people in the iron lungs!. There were doors on some of these contraptions for changing the diapers!. The people were taken out from time to time for the lung to be sanitized and the people to be bathed and returned to the lung!.
Yes, it was horrid!!
What would be even more horrid is if people don't have their children immunized from the diseases that were such killers and maimers of the past just because there is a very minute chance they might get something else!. It isn't worth it people!!!Www@Answer-Health@Com
Fortunately, modern ventilators have made the Iron Lung largely obsolete!. Most polio victims could breathe on their own for a short time out of the ventilator!. Many patients had a modicum of bladder control, or an aide could express urine by pushing on the pubis!. If that failed, a catheter was used, or large diapers (Attends weren't invented at that time)!.
Bowel movements were a real problem!. Given the largely liquid diet, sedentary life, and inability to increase abdominal or pelvic pressure, many polio sufferers were either incontinent of stool, or required enemas for constipation!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Bowel movements were a real problem!. Given the largely liquid diet, sedentary life, and inability to increase abdominal or pelvic pressure, many polio sufferers were either incontinent of stool, or required enemas for constipation!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
We need to distinguish between modern ventilators and "the iron lung" which encased the upper chest and abdomen and, through alternate suction and pressure, would breathe for the patient!. They were not portable and the patient could not sit up or move around, as you can with modern ventilators!. So patients would have to use bed pans!. When it came time to clean them, the iron lung could be rotated so that nurses could clean their bottoms!. They were only practicable in cases like polio, where the patient could recover some control over their respiratory muscles in a month or two!. If they did not, then they would be removed, AND THE FAMILY WOULD GATHER BY THE BEDSIDE!. I am old enough to remember those polio days!. One of my classmates died that way!. Another one died of measles! And many of my classmates were partially deaf or blind because they had German Measles (Rubella) in utero!. I just don't understand how people can willingly refuse to immunize their children against these killer diseases!.
Addendum: OK!. I admit to being overly dramatic!. And I didn't mean to imply that the decision was imposed on the patient!. Then, as now, patients and their families were allowed to make a choice!. And they could choose "to let nature take its course!." My classmate and her family did make such a choice!. I am not "wrong," I just have had different experiences than some others!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Addendum: OK!. I admit to being overly dramatic!. And I didn't mean to imply that the decision was imposed on the patient!. Then, as now, patients and their families were allowed to make a choice!. And they could choose "to let nature take its course!." My classmate and her family did make such a choice!. I am not "wrong," I just have had different experiences than some others!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Yes, they leave on a regular basis!. An iron lung is seldom used for more than a couple of hours at a time!. A respirator does an efficient job for long term use!. The iron lung is best considered as a type of respiratory therapy, rather than an actual housing facility!. There are now iron lungs the size of hospital rooms, complete with air locks, for patients who need an iron lung full time!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Its called a catheter, a tube into the baldder which then empties into a bag!. They don't get up!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
CathederWww@Answer-Health@Com
wait if it has to do with breathing
then why would it have wasteWww@Answer-Health@Com
then why would it have wasteWww@Answer-Health@Com
they probably have them hooked up to stuff that empties it out into some kind of containerWww@Answer-Health@Com
they would use tubes,just like in a comaWww@Answer-Health@Com