This is essential to keep me breathing when the iron lung is opened for nursing.

CNN: 'I lived in an iron lung for seven years'

In other words the iron lung is sealed and attached to bellows, which lower the air pressure inside the iron lung to create a negative pressure.

CNN: 'I lived in an iron lung for seven years'

He spent most of his final 37 years on Cape Breton, working on projects as varied as the vacuum jacket (a forerunner of the iron lung), man-carrying tetrahedral kites and, most famously, the hydrofoil.

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"The Sessions" earned two acting prizes, for John Hawkes as a man in an iron lung hoping to lose his virginity and Helen Hunt as the sexual surrogate helping him through it.

NPR: 'Silver Linings' Leads Spirit Awards With 4 Prizes

Although no cure was developed, a device called an iron lung was invented to help people with the disease breathe.

CNN: Why polio hasn't gone away yet

On these occasions I go into a "tipping and turning" iron lung -- a more recent development of the original.

CNN: 'I lived in an iron lung for seven years'

Also being screened is The Sessions, which stars John Hawkes as a polio patient in an iron lung who enlists a sex surrogate (Helen Hunt) in order to lose his virginity.

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