Iron Lung & Hyperbaric Chamber, Ireland

An Iron Lung & Hyperbaric Chamber; two interesting pieces of old medical equipment that remain in a former hospital in Ireland.

Additionally, there is an interesting old Hospital Laundry building on this same site. I explored both these buildings during my Ireland 2023 Tour(s).

Iron Lung – Both Portable Cabinet Respirator (1930s)

Edward Both developed the Both Portable Cabinet Respirator in 1937 in response to a polio epidemic in Australia. This piece of medical equipment is commonly referred to as an “iron lung”. Poliomyelitis (polio) is a viral disease that affects the nervous system. In some cases, causing paralysis of the muscles used for breathing. Without artificial ventilation, this can be fatal.

The respirator was made of plywood and was less expensive to produce than equipment that had been available previously. It was quickly adopted by hospitals in the United Kingdom, where it was used to treat patients who had lost their ability to breathe on their own.

The Both Portable Cabinet Respirator functioned by generating negative pressure around the patient’s body. The patient’s lungs expanded as a result of this altered pressure, enabling the patient to breathe. An electric pump controlled the respirator, which could be adjusted to provide the correct amount of pressure for each patient.

For many polio patients, the Both respirator was a life-saving device. It gave them the ability to breathe while their bodies healed and they recovered from the disease.

Another benefit of the Both-design was its portability; patients could be discharged from the hospital and cared for at home.

Both respirators are no longer widely used, as more sophisticated ventilators are now available. It is, however, an important historical invention that saved the lives of many polio patients.

Hyperbaric Chamber – Vickers Hyperbaric Oxygen Bed System (1960s)

The Vickers Hyperbaric Oxygen Bed System is a hyperbaric chamber developed in the 1960s by Vickers, a British engineering company. The chamber was designed to provide patients with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT); a treatment that involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment.

HBOT is used to treat a variety of conditions, including:

• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Decompression sickness (the bends, often as a result of scuba diving incidents)
• Necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease)
• Radiation injuries
• Some types of cancer

The Vickers Hyperbaric Oxygen Bed System was phased out of use in UK hospitals in the 1990s. However, it is still used in research laboratories as well as in some clinical institutes in the United States and Canada.