Inaugural Polio Walk highlights Marquette’s medical history

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - The Marquette Rotary Club hosted its inaugural Marquette Polio Walk as part of the larger World Polio Day awareness campaign. The walk began at 11 a.m. at Lake Superior Theatre and ended at the Marquette Regional History Center.

Brian Derheimer, a Rotary Club member and organizer of the Polio Walk, said the event aimed to raise awareness that polio still exists.

“There are a lot of folks that may not understand that it’s still out there. There’s only just over a hundred cases worldwide left, and a lot of that is due to Rotary’s efforts,” Derheimer said.

Members of the Rotary Club explained the history of polio and the 1940’s Upper Peninsula outbreak to attendees.

“There was essentially too much of a demand for the iron lung, and so some locals actually were able to manufacture and put together, essentially, the prototype for the wooden lung to be able to help ensure that people who were stricken with the polio would be able to have access to something that could help them breathe,” Derheimer said.

A wooden crate lung, which was invented Marquette and used in the 1940s to treat the UP’s polio outbreak, and which’s design made its way nationwide, cost about $40 to produce, compared to about $40,000 for a regular iron lung.

Chip Truscon, a Marquette Regional History Center docent, described how the device was built.

“All you needed was a record player, a vacuum cleaner, and a sealed box, of course, with one end open for the children’s head. I think all total throughout the U-P there were about 2-300, most of them were here at St. Lukes Hospital,” Trucson said.

Truscon gave a demonstration on how iron and wooden lungs operated and answered questions on polio and treatment during its peak years.

He also explained how the wooden lung was created, and how a piece of Marquette medical history made its way nationwide.

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