In the 1940s and 1950s polio was a terrible threat that caused the deaths of hundreds and paralyzed many more in the United States. McLean County was braced for the epidemic the summer of 1949 after experiencing the polio epidemic of 1948. St. Joseph's was the planned center for polio treatment in central Illinois and two wards were set aside for polio victims. The hospital had two iron lungs, but as the patients began arriving, the hospital sought out alternative iron lungs. The county had no new polio cases until July 31, when the first victim fell ill.
William Campbell, a 27 year old school teacher and coach at Washington Junior High (Washington Grade School), was the first victim. He became ill on Sunday, July 31, and was rushed to the hospital. His family was very aware of the symptoms of polio, because his young son, William Vernon Campbell, had been stricken with polio the year before. By Tuesday, Campbell was dead even though he had been placed in an iron lung and given the best treatment. Campbell had been a student at ISNU before World War II, and he completed his education after returning from his wartime service as an aviation cadet. He was a teacher at Washington just one year before his death and had a son, William Vernon, and daughter, Susan. His wife was Elaine Rohrer of Arrowsmith.
After William Campbell's admission to the hospital it was considered important to obtain another iron lung. Sister M. Celine and Marty Szabados, the hospital engineer, flew to Muncie, Indiana with Art Carnahan to investigate the availability of lung machines. Art Carnahan flew the pair at no cost to the hospital, just one of many selfless acts performed in the fight against polio in this county. In Muncie a homemade lung machine was built with oil drums and vacuum cleaners -- the machinists and engineers of McLean County were ready to build their own as well. The shops of Eureka Williams, the airport and Walter Williams' personal machine shop on Country Club Drive were all offered up as places where homemade iron lungs could be built in Bloomington.
Ultimately, the lung built at the Eureka Williams plant was made of plywood and developed by a team of engineers there: Charles Pierson, Art Hollatz, Vern Flanders, Charlie Trigg, Robert Witherell, Barney Lott, Howard Earl, Roy Kunz, and Ralph Osborn. It was ready just two days before it was put into action.
The first patient to use the wooden "iron" lung was Rudy Landheer from Morrison, Illinois on August 10th. The home made lung was credited with saving his life. St. Joseph's other iron lungs were in use when Rudy arrived. At the same time, another iron lung was being shipped to Bloomington from Manteno but could not be made operable until the following morning. If not for the Eureka Williams' built lung, Rudy Landheer may have died. Rudy remained at St. Joseph's for a year and was confined to a wheelchair the remainder of his life. His brother, Lester, remained at the hospital for eight months and was fitted with a brace to make walking a possibility. Three other Landheer siblings had milder cases of polio at the same time. Nurses at the hospital raised money in 1951 to buy a television for the Landheer family because of the emotional ties they had formed with the two boys. The story of Rudy and the wooden "iron" lung was published in newspapers across the United States.
After William Campbell's hospitalization, the Jaycees went into action and provided funds for the spraying of Bloomington/Normal by a professional pest control company, just another example of how people in Bloomington banded together to help.
The second patient from Bloomington was eight year old Raymond Hammond on August 12, 1949. He lived in the same block of West Grove Street as did William Campbell. When Raymond was admitted to the hospital, twenty other polio patients were at St. Joseph's. Raymond's condition did not demand the use of the iron lung.
St. Joseph's cared for 95 victims of polio (from 17 different counties) during the summer of 1949, and about 20 of those needed the iron lung. Three people in McLean County died and five from other counties died of polio in St. Joseph's.
Prior to the disease hitting Bloomington, local singer Lyle Smith had raised money for the second iron lung in Bloomington. The Louis E. Davis American Legion Post had purchased the first iron lung for Bloomington in 1946. Bloomington's story of polio is a story of a community working together to defeat a disease that was still not fully understood, but was terrifying in its ability to strike an adult or child dead in a matter of hours. The 1949 epidemic continued for two months.