The History of CPR

Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation

Some of the very earliest recorded attempts of resuscitation can be found in the bible, performed mostly by midwives to resuscitate newborns.

In the 19th century, Doctor H. R. Silvester described a method (the Silvester Method) of artificial respiration in which the patient is laid on their back, and their arms are raised above their head to aid inhalation and then pressed against their chest to aid exhalation. The procedure was repeated sixteen times per minute.

In the late 1950’s Drs. James Elam and Peter Safar pioneered the development of "mouth-to-mouth" resuscitation. In early 1960 Drs. Kouwenhoven, Knickerbocker, and Jude discovered the benefit of chest compression to achieve a small amount of artificial circulation. Later in 1960, mouth-to-mouth and chest compression were combined to form CPR similar to the way it is practiced today.

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