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Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
Before the 1950s, when a person suffered cardiac arrest, this
generally meant death was imminent. But surgeon and medical
innovator Peter Safar changed that with his development and
popularization of the procedure known as cardiopulmonary resuscitation,
or CPR.
Safar was born in Vienna, Austria on April 12, 1924 to a
surgeon father and pediatrician mother. He pursued medicine
in college, graduating with his M.D. from the University of
Vienna in 1948. He then studied oncology and surgery there
for a brief period before traveling to the Yale New Haven
Hospital in Connecticut in 1950 to continue his studies. He
finished his schooling at the University of Pennsylvania in
1952, where he studied anaesthesiology.
From there Safar traveled to Peru to oversee the anesthesiology
department at the National Cancer Institute in Lima. This
was followed by a similar position at Baltimore City Hospital
in Maryland, where he worked until 1961. In Baltimore Safar
conducted research on existing basic life support procedures
including controlling a person’s breathing airway by
tilting back his or her head with an open mouth; and using
mouth-to-mouth breathing. He combined these with a procedure
known as closed-chest cardiac massage to become the basic
life support method of CPR.
Throughout his life Safar was hesitant to take credit for
“inventing” CPR. The way he saw it, he merely
brought to light effective procedures that humans had already
discovered, putting them together into what he called “the
ABCs”—maintaining a patient's Airway, Breathing
and Circulation. He worked hard to popularize the procedure
around the world and collaborated with a Norwegian company
to create “Resusci Anne,” the first CPR training
mannequin.
Safar’s reputation in the fields of anesthesiology
and resuscitation continued to grow as he added groundbreaking
advances to his list of accomplishments. He moved on to the
University of Pittsburgh in 1961 to form a new anesthesiology
department, which has since become the largest academic anaesthesiology
department in the nation. There he solidified his place as
a pioneer in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and critical care
medicine, developing the United States’ first intensive
care unit and paramedic ambulance service.
Tragedy struck in 1966 when Safar’s 11-year-old daughter,
Elizabeth, died after suffering an asthma attack. Doctors
had been able to revive her heart and lungs, but not her brain,
after she lapsed into a coma. This realization lead Safar
to focus on a method for cardiopulmonary-cerebral resuscitation,
or CPCR. Safar worked on "suspended animation for delayed
resuscitation," employing body cooling techniques and
hypothermia to gain critical time for physicians engaged in
life-saving medical and surgical interventions.
Safar also created the first guidelines for community-wide
emergency medical services, or EMS; he founded the International
Resuscitation Research Center (IRRC) at the University of
Pittsburgh, which he directed until 1994; and he was nominated
three times for the Nobel Prize in medicine. He was also a
tireless advocate for what he termed "peace medicine"
and human rights. His publications number more than 1,300
professional papers, 600 abstracts, and 30 books and manuals.
Safar died on August 3, 2003 at the age of 79.
[April 2004]
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