By Steven Perlman, DDS, MScD, DHL (hon)

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

— Robert Frost

A recent obituary I read on social media was the stimulus for this month’s President’s message. It reminded me why I have devoted a major part of my fifty-four-year career in dentistry to treating people with Intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities throughout their lifespan.

Over the years, countless colleagues and patients have asked me why I chose that career path. Almost everyone assumed that a I had family member with a disability that impacted my life, but it was an experience in 1968 that inspired me. I can vividly remember it as if it were yesterday.

The obituary that brought back that memory was the passing on June 26, 2026, of

Martha Ann Lillard, the last known person in the United States that still relied on an Iron Lung to survive.

Mrs. Lillard had contracted Polio in 1953 when she was five years old. In my junior year of college at George Washington University, I took a part-time job as a research assistant in their Rehabilitation and Research Program, which was housed in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

The person who hired me and I worked exclusively for was Thomas Shworles, a prominent vocational and Rehabilitation Psychologist who had Spina Bifida. Tom was a quadriplegic, lived independently, and focused on empowering individuals with disabilities through assistive technology and independent living.

He powered around the hospital and worked in his electric wheelchair that he operated with one finger, went to and from his apartment independently, and relied on caregivers to dress and bathe him, place him in his bed at night, and back into his wheelchair the following day,

The occupational therapists and hospital team made his apartment as accessible as possible for him to navigate daily life, and he lived as comfortably as possible. I often accompanied him home to discuss projects on which we were working.

Tom had bought a Volkswagen van for his transportation needs, relying on his friends to drive, and his wheelchair was anchored for safety. He was fiercely independent, highly intelligent, quick-witted, and as sharp as a tack.

Our main project was to find employment for people with severe disabilities who were homebound using the new technology of “computers.” My job was to drive to their homes in his van and administer the Raven test, a nonverbal cognitive assessment tool.

Once a week I would interview a new patient, generally an adult with severe disabilities, meet their families, and observe how their disability affected their daily lives.

One afternoon in my senior year, I had to drive out to a nursing home in Fairfax, Virginia to interview a young man who was exactly my age.

He had contracted Polio a few years before and was confined to an Iron Lung. I had never seen an Iron Lung before, and as I interviewed him, only his head stuck out of the machine, which also had mirrors on each side.

All I could think of during that entire interview was that it could have been me in that machine.

Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to Polio, is an infectious disease caused by the Poliovirus. It occurs naturally only in humans, is highly infectious, and is spread from person to person either through fecal-oral transmission or via the oral-oral route. Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to six weeks, even if no symptoms are present.

The few hours I spent with the patient was a life-changing experience for me, and I thought if I were able to pursue my goal for a career in dentistry, somehow it would involve caring for people with disabilities.

As it turned out, the only way it could be possible for me was if I completed a two-year residency in Pediatric Dentistry, where I would receive clinical and didactic training for treating children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities throughout their lifespan.

Upon completing dental school, I was drafted and spent two years as a Navy dentist treating active duty and retired Navy personnel.

It was a perfect segway for me into my pediatric residency, as it provided me with the clinical and didactic experience to treat people with disabilities throughout their lifespan.

Reading the obituary of Martha Lillard brought back all those fond memories. Martha Ann Lillard was born June 8, 1948, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. She celebrated her fifth birthday with a party in Joyland, an amusement park in Kansas. Nine days later, she woke up with a sore throat and pain in her neck. She was diagnosed with Polio and spent the next six months in the hospital in a negative-pressure ventilator called the Iron Lung.

She chose to use the Iron Lung for the rest of her life, sleeping in it nightly. She said the ventilator was what kept her alive, healthy, and enabled her to breathe the following day.

Martha spent much of her life alone. She was homeschooled in her childhood, unable to participate in most extracurricular activities.

In the United States, several Polio epidemics occurred between 1948 and 1955. During those years, people avoided many public gatherings such as fairs, sporting events, and swimming pools.

Those with Polio were treated in isolation wards, placed in Iron Lungs, and hospitals were short-staffed during these epidemics.

From 1952 to 1955, Dr. Jonas E. Salk and his colleagues feverishly worked to develop the Polio vaccine, which affected about 160,000 children a year in the United States.

The first Polio vaccine arrived at the Mayo Clinic on April 13, 1955, one day after it was licensed in the United States.

In 1961, Dr. Albert Sabin developed the second Polio vaccine and the third in 1963. Polio is now considered to be eliminated in the United States.

Lillard lived an unusual life. During the day, she was able to leave her Iron Lung, watch movies, took care of her dogs, and was married twice. Her first marriage lasted 28 years, and her second, two years after a 22-year courtship.

She was never able to sleep and breathe without the Iron Lung until she succumbed to the effects of Long COVID on June 26, 2026, at the age of 78.

It is ironic that she died on my eightieth birthday, the last known patient that was dependent on the Iron Lung to survive.

Tom Shworles continued to serve as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at George Washington University and made several key contributions to the field. He served as the lead of the Committee on Personal Computers for the Handicapped

in the 1980’s and was a fierce advocate to increase independence and employment for people with severe mobility impairments.

In his psychological work, he studied and promoted programs to aid homebound individuals with disabilities, focusing on the psychological aspects of living with conditions such as Spina Bifida.

In 1994, when I was asked to start a health program for the athletes of Special Olympics International, I envisioned a screening program that would expose healthcare students and professionals of all disciplines to an environment that would allow and encourage them to engage with children and adults with disabilities of all ages, from mild to severe conditions, surrounded by their families.

To expose them to as many people as possible in a day, with the hope that they might have an experience that would impact on their lives, as it did for me.

About the Author

President’s Message

The Hippocratic Oath

Project DIME