Woman who spent life in iron lung dies at age of 61

A woman who defied medical odds and spent nearly 60 years in an iron lung after being diagnosed with polio as a child died on Wednesday after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her breathing, her family said.

Dianne Odell, 61, had been confined to the 2.1-m-long metal tube since she was stricken by polio at 3 years old.

Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working after a power failure knocked out electricity to the Odell family's residence near Jackson, about 129 km northeast of Memphis, brother-in-law Will Beyer said.