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The oldest living cyborg, a woman named Dianne Odell who lived for 58 years in an iron lung, died tragically yesterday when the power went out and backup generators failed to keep her 7-foot-long metal body functioning. Odell was paralyzed by a form of polio when she was 3 years old, just a few years before polio vaccines eliminated the disease that left many people paralyzed (including the wheelchair-bound U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt). Like many people paralyzed by polio, Odell was put into an iron lung, a massive metal tube that created positive and negative pressure to make her lungs function. Unlike most people, she survived in the iron lung for decades, with only her head peeking out. More »
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