The History of CPR

 

If you’ve been in to our office, you’ve probably noticed our collection of antique CPR, medical, pharmaceutical, and mortuary equipment.  The changes to CPR have been many, even just looking at the past couple of decades that we’ve been in business…but the AHA goes back even further with their history of CPR.  Hopefully you enjoy this history as much as we do!

 

Resuscitation:

It’s as old as the healing arts, as new as a drone delivering an automated external defibrillator (AED). And from primitive methods (like whipping an unconscious victim with stinging nettles) to modern-day cardiovascular pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the evolution of resuscitation has been marked by profound aha! moments alongside decades of abandoned lifesaving methods. These are just a few highlights from the intricate and fascinating history of CPR. 

 

The Bellows Method

1530-1800s

The Bellows Method¹ first used by Swiss physician Paracelsus.

1732

In Alloa, Scotland, local surgeon William Tossach uses mouth-to-mouth 
breaths to revive a suffocated coal-pit miner. Dr. Tossach documents
the success 12 years later, in what may be the first clinical description
of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in medical literature.

1740

The Academie des Sciences in Paris officially recommends 
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for reviving victims of drowning.2

1774

London physicians William Hawes and Thomas Cogan found the 
Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned (later to 
become The Royal Humane Society) to assist victims of sudden and 
unexpected death.

1775

Experimenting with animals, Danish veterinarian Peter Abildgaard 
discovers that after rendering a chicken lifeless by shocking it, 
countershocks to the chest could restore a heartbeat.3

1782

The Royal Humane Society expresses its preference for using 
bellows rather than mouth-to-mouth ventilation to artificially inflate the lungs.4

The Hall and Silvester methods become the most commonly used
 forms of artificial respiration until the early 20th century.5

The Hall Method

The Silvester Method

1856

London physician Marshall Hall introduces his simple resuscitation technique: alternately repositioning the patient from face up to side. He updates the approach by adding pressure on the thorax.6

1858

Henry Silvester, another London physician, creates the chest-pressure arm-lift method: raise the patient’s arms up to expand the chest, then cross the arms over the chest to apply expiratory pressure.7

1874

German physiologist Moritz Schiff’s research on animals in Florence, 
Italy8 reveals that massaging the heart during surgery can restore circulation.

1878

In Germany, Rudolph Boehm shows that external compressions
 of the heart provide adequate circulation in cats.9

1891

After using external compressions to restart the hearts of 2 young 
human patients, German surgeon Dr. Friedrich Maass becomes the
first to advocate chest compressions, rather than ventilation alone, 
to help with circulation.10 But the technique doesn’t take hold, and
 for the next half century, open-heart massage is the standard.

1903

In Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. George Crile’s research confirms that 
external chest compressions restore circulation in dogs.¹¹

1904

Dr. Crile reports successful closed-chest cardiac massage in ONE
human case.¹² But once again, the noninvasive technique doesn’t
gain traction, and patients continue to receive open-heart massage.

1924

Six cardiologists meet in Chicago and form the American Heart 
Association (AHA) as a professional society for physicians. 
Nearly a century later, the AHA will be the world leader in CPR 
and emergency cardiovascular care (ECC) training and education.

 

1933

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, led by electrical 
engineer William Kouwenhoven, PhD, accidentally rediscover 
external compressions when they find that pressure on a dog’s 
sternum provides adequate circulation to the brain to keep the 
animal alive until defibrillation can restart its heart. Their results 
are confirmed in more than 100 dogs.¹³

1947

In Cleveland, Ohio, cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Claude Beck 
performs the first successful use of an electric defibrillator 
on an exposed human heart.14

The AHA begins publishing Circulation, a scientific journal 
that informs doctors, researchers, and others about 
cardiovascular breakthroughs.

1954

American physician and respiratory researcher Dr. James Elam 
becomes the first person to prove that expired air is sufficient 
to maintain adequate oxygenation.15

1956

Dr. Elam and Dr. Peter Safar prove that mouth-to-mouth 
resuscitation is an effective lifesaving method. Drs. Elam, 
Safar, and Archer Gordon play leading roles in promoting
rescue breathing to professional healthcare providers and 
the public alike.16For the first time in human medicine, an external defibrillator 
successfully restores a steady rhythm to a quivering heart. 
Harvard cardiologist Dr. Paul Zoll leads the study with 
funding from the AHA.

1957

The United States military adopts the mouth-to-mouth 
resuscitation method to revive unresponsive victims.
Dr. Safar performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in Baltimore, 1957.A Hopkins Closed Chest Defibrillator

1957: Johns Hopkins team unveils first portable external defibrillator

After several years of research on closed-chest defibrillation, Dr. Kouwenhoven’s team at John’s Hopkins, which includes James Jude, MD, and Guy Knickerbocker, PhD, unveils its prototype of the first portable external defibrillator (on a wheeled cart): the 200-lb Hopkins Closed Chest Defibrillator.17(l to r) Doctors Jude, Kouwenhoven, and Knickerbocker

1960

Resuscitation pioneers Drs. Kouwenhoven, Safar, and 
Jude combine mouth-to-mouth breathing with chest
compressions to create cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 
the lifesaving actions we now call CPR.The AHA starts a program to acquaint physicians with 
closed-chest cardiac resuscitation, which becomes the 
forerunner of CPR training for the general public.

 

 

The life-size training manikin (a collaborative effort by 
Drs. Safar, Elam, and Gordon and Norwegian toymaker 
Åsmund Lærdal) goes on to teach CPR skills to more than 
400 million people—and counting—worldwide.18

 

 

1963

Cardiologist Dr. Leonard Scherlis establishes the AHA’s 
CPR Committee. That same year, the AHA formally 
endorses CPR.

1966

The National Research Council of the National Academy of
Sciences convenes an ad hoc conference on cardiopulmonary 
resuscitation. The conference is the direct result of requests
 from the American National Red Cross and other agencies 
to establish standardized training and performance 
standards for CPR.

Dr. Leonard Cobb

1972

In Seattle, University of Washington cardiologist 
Dr. Leonard Cobb launches Medic II, the world’s first 
mass citizen training in CPR.19 During its first 2 years, 
the program helps train more than 100,000 people.

1973

Second National Conference on CPR and ECC

1975

The AHA publishes the first Advanced Cardiovascular
Life Support (ACLS) Textbook.

1981

A program to provide telephone instructions for performing 
CPR begins in King County, Washington. The program trains 
emergency dispatchers to give callers CPR instructions while 
EMT personnel are in route to the scene. Fast forward to the 
21st century: Dispatcher-assisted telephone CPR is standard
in dispatch centers across the United States.

1983

The AHA convenes a national conference on pediatric 
resuscitation to develop CPR and ECC guidelines for pediatric 
and neonatal patients.

1985

Fourth National Conference on CPR and ECC

1988

In co-sponsorship with The American Academy of Pediatrics,
the AHA introduces the first pediatric courses: pediatric BLS, 
pediatric advanced life support (PALS), and neonatal resuscitation.

 

Public access defibrillation programs provide training and
resources, including AEDs, to the public so that they can help
resuscitate victims of cardiac arrest.

1990

Fifth National Conference on CPR and ECC

1992

Founding of the International Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR)

1999

The first task force on first aid is appointed. This year also sees 
the first International Conference on Guidelines for CPR and ECC.

2004

The AHA and ILCOR release a statement about AED use in 
children, stating that for children ages 1 year to 8 years who 
have no signs of circulation, it is appropriate to use an AED.

2005

The AHA develops the Family & Friends® CPR Anytime® kit, 
an innovative product that enables anyone to learn the core skills 
of CPR in just 20 minutes. The kit provides everything needed to 
learn basic CPR, AED skills, and choking relief anywhere, from a
family room at home to a setting for instructing large groups.The 2005 International Consensus on CPR and ECC Science With 
Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR) Conference leads to the AHA 
publishing the 2005 AHA Guidelines for CPR and ECC. The 
Guidelines recommend a new compression-to-ventilation ratio 
of 30:2 as well as changes to AED usage.

2008 – Simpler CPR for bystanders

The AHA releases new recommendations that bystanders who are 
untrained, unwilling or unable can use Hands‐Only CPR to help 
an adult or teen who collapses suddenly,20 delaying rescue 
breaths until help arrives. The change reflects findings from 
multiple studies from Dr. Gordon Ewy and colleagues showing 
that uninterrupted, high-quality chest compressions without 
rescue breaths can be lifesaving in the first minutes of a 
sudden cardiac arrest.

2010

After the 2010 International CoSTR Conference, the AHA 
publishes the 2010 AHA Guidelines for CPR and ECC. 2010 
also marks the 50th anniversary of CPR.2012: Hands-Only CPR Hits the Road to Save Lives   

2013

The AHA installs an interactive CPR kiosk at Dallas-Ft. Worth 
airport. It features a practice manikin, video, and touch screen 
that give performance feedback as passengers between flights
learn to perform hands-only CPR. Within 5 years, there will be 
more than 30 CPR kiosks in cities across the country.

2015

The Institute of Medicine releases its report Strategies to 
Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act (2015). After 
the 2015 International CoSTR Conference, the AHA publishes 
the 2015 AHA Guidelines Update for CPR and ECC.

2017

The AHA begins its continuous evidence evaluation process 
for the Guidelines for CPR and ECC and, later that year, 
releases the 2017 Focused Update.

2018

In June, the AHA publishes “Resuscitation Education Science: 
Educational Strategies to Improve Outcomes from Cardiac Arrest”
in the journal Circulation. This statement, which is applicable to all
resuscitation training programs (not exclusive to AHA), examines 
best practices in education and applies them to resuscitation. By 
implementing the statement’s guidance, training programs and 
resuscitation instructors will help raise the standard of care and 
increase survival from cardiac arrest.

                                             source: 

                    #smallbusiness #networking #OKCsmallbiz