America's last iron lungs: Incredible video shows polio survivors whose life saving-equipment is repaired by car mechanics and engineers after health insurers and manufacturers stopped covering the devices 13 years ago

Paul Alexander, 70, of Dallas, is one of just a handful of people around the world who still relies on an iron lung to help him breathe
Manufacturing ceased in the 1960s and now polio survivors such as Alexander are forced to rely on car mechanics and engineers to fix the life-saving device
Alexander spends almost every moment in the device after contracting polio as a five-year-old in 1952
Martha Ann Lillard's crippling illness has made her a prisoner in her own home for more than 60 years after she was paralyzed by polio at age five
She says that modern alternatives to the iron lung are simply not as efficient
Her iron lung runs on a fan belt motor that friends help patch together with car parts when it breaks
The last big outbreak of polio in the US took place in 1952, but polio was eradicated by 1979 thanks to the vaccine

PUBLISHED: 18:45 EST, 20 November 2017 | UPDATED: 15:09 EST, 21 November 2017

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