Dianne ODell Dies in Iron Lung After Power Outage

ODell has been in an iron lung for nearly 60 years, after being diagnosed with polio as a child.

Family members of Dianne ODell tried to get the emergency generator working to the 7-foot-long machine. “We did everything we could do but we couldn’t keep her breathing,” said brother-in-law Will Beyer. “Dianne had gotten a lot weaker over the past several months and she just didn’t have the strength to keep going.”

Emergency crews were called to the scene, but they were unable to help Dianne ODell.

Though confined to the 750-pound machine for most of her life, Dianne was able to get a high school diploma, take college courses and write a children’s book.

Source: By Bitten and Bound http://bittenandbound.com/

Here is a little quote from Star Center for Life about Dianne ODell and her dreams.

Dianne was born February 13, 1947, at a time when polio was savagely claiming victims throughout the country. Dianne was snared by the throes of polio in June of 1950 and accepted the consequences of this formidable enemy without fully understanding the implications or the decisiveness of its attack. Dianne was imprisoned by an iron lung shortly thereafter, and there she remains, depending upon it to breathe for her while she cannot.

Dianne always dreamed of writing a children's book. But she despised the idea of dictating it for someone else to write and longed to do this herself, in much the same way as she longs to hug someone.

Dianne said, "I have had two dreams in my life. The ability to write without the help of others" and "to write my own letters and perhaps books." She continues, "My dream of writing a book without help has come true. I had started a children's book over 12 years ago. The computer I had then gave me nothing but frustration. It must have been three years before I realized that the method of voice recognition that I was using would never work for my voice. It broke my heart to think of all the wasted money people had contributed for my benefit. Now my expectations have been more than fully realized . . . I am making good progress."