Dianne Odell Dies in Iron Lung After Power Outage

Dianne Odell, 61 years old women from Jackson, TN, has died after a power failure disabled her breathing machine. She was at her family home near Memphis, in Tennessee.

Dianne Odell has been in an iron lung for about 58 years, after being diagnosed with polio when she was 3.

Dianne Odell’s family members tried to get the emergency generator working.

“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 were unable to help.

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

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.”

Rest in peace Dianne Odell.

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