Obituaries.

Fit to Fight, a racehorse who won the 1984 New York Triple Crown, was euthanized today due to the infirmities of old age. He was 29 years old.
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A woman who lived in an iron lung for nearly 60 years due to being stricken with polio when she was three, Dianne Odell, 61, has died. She was the oldest person living who was encased in an iron lung.

Although she lived a physically restricted life, nothing stopped her.

Only a power outage ended her life.

A video of this remarkable person is here.

Find a Grave has her at its site.

Snip:

Joan Headley of Post-Polio Health International in St. Louis said that about 30 people in the United States still rely on iron lungs but that few users are confined to them all the time. No one keeps records, she said, on the longest confinement.

Caregivers could slide Odell's bedding out of her iron lung for basic nursing care but only briefly, McMeen said.

An entire section on her life can be found here. Blog readers should take a look at the letter she wrote with her toes. She could write better with her toes than many people can with their fingers.

Here is a YouTube of Dianne:



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