Polio still endemic in just four countries today: Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A polio patient receives treatment inside an iron lung in France in 1939

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Iron lungs became common place in hospitals in the 1940s and 50s as the only way to keep patients alive 

Lillard was infected with polio at her fifth birthday party at the Joyland Amusement Park, Texas, on June 8, 1953. What was first dismissed as just a cold, became increasingly worse until she couldn't raise her head from the pillow. Doctors confirmed the worst.

'The night before I was paralyzed, the neighbor children ate out of the same bowl of pancake batter that I did,' Lillard said. 'They just had to pray that nobody got it.' 

She also has bent back from scoliosis which doctors couldn't operate on because polio patients can die on anesthesia.

Today she lives alone aside from her three beagles and 20 geckos, although she has a helper come in. 

WHAT IS POLIO?

Polio is an infectious viral disease that affects the central nervous system respiratory function and can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.

It is transmitted through contaminated water and food or contact with an infected person.

It has largely been eradicated around the world after widespread use of the vaccine which came into use in the 1950s.

The disease remains endemic in just four countries today: Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Like all the iron lung users left today, she owns her iron lung, after Respironics, who inherited responsibility for the devices in a series of mergers, gave everyone a choice in 2004; upgrade to more modern respirators or accept full ownership and responsibility for the iron lung - and all its repairs.

The machines were actually manufactured by March of Dimes which produced the last iron lung in the 1960s.

But ownership means finding someone to repair them. 

Lillard owns two iron lungs - one as backup.

They run on a fan belt motor that friends help patch together with car parts when it breaks.

Yet she admits she lives in constant fear of suffering a blackout which means her iron lung would lose power and she could die in her sleep.  

Brian Tiburzi, executive director of Post-Polio Health International (PPHI), estimated that of the 350,000 to 500,000 polio survivors in the US today, less than ten were still using iron lungs.

'Part of it is just habit,' he told DailyMail.com when asked why those few were so reluctant to use more modern, portable options, such as the chest cuirass which is a much smaller device that is held against the chest but works in a similar fashion.

'That's sort of what they have been used to all their life. Some people also use them because they have trouble with the masks, some leak, some people get sores, or find them uncomfortable to wear.

'The vast majority of switched.'

He added that the announcement by Respironics in 2004 meant 'they were sort of told they were on their own.'

Tiburzi said that many polio survivors simply couldn't understand the anti-vaccination movement, and why anyone would risk the health of their kids.

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The last big outbreak of polio in the US took place in 1952, which left 3,145 dead and 21,269 paralyzed (pictured is an iron lung being examined in an undated photo)

'Many polio survivors have strong opinions on that. They have contracted a disease that affected them in profound ways that is now preventable.

'People think it's lunacy you wouldn't take these simple steps to protect yourself.'

The last big outbreak of polio in the US took place in 1952, which left 3,145 dead and 21,269 paralyzed.

At that time, iron lungs became common place in hospitals as the only way to keep patients alive.

In 1955, Jonas Salk developed a vaccine which was so successful that the last wild case of polio in the US was in 1979.

There have been a small number of cases reported Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan where conflicts have disrupted the vaccination process.

But with the rise of the anti-vaccination movement in some states, it's possible that the US could be facing its first new outbreak in almost 40 years.

Lillard, who considers herself an anomaly in a U.S. society that barely remembers the scourge of polio, wants to make sure that people never forget.

'I think the word is to get your child vaccinated. Why would we let somebody have to go back through that again?' she said.

'If my mother would have had the opportunity to give me the vaccine, she would have done that.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-