CME INDIA Presentation by ⚜ Dr. M. Gowri Sankar, MD, Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of General Medicine, Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore.
Today’s History Feature:
Dr. Peter Safar
(Apr 12,1924 – Aug 2, 2003)
💠Austrian born-American Anaesthetist
💠Father of CPR
His contributions…
🔹Safar was born in a physician family in Vienna, Austria. His father was an Ophthalmologist and his mother was a Paediatrician.
🔹He studied medicine at the University of Vienna in 1948 and then completed his training in Anaesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1952. After his studies, he began to work at the Department of Anaesthesiology at John Hopkins Baltimore City Hospital.
🔹Thereafter, Dr. Safar associated with an American Physician Dr. James Elam, and together developed the life saving techniques of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with closed chest cardiac compression, which is known commonly as Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation or CPR.
🔹The Duo also introduced the ABC rule in emergency
A – Airway
B – Breathing
C – Circulation
🔹Subsequently, they worked with a doll maker and developed the famous resuscitation training manikin named “Rescue Anne.”
🔹Suddenly, Dr. Safar’s 11 years old daughter suffered an asthmatic attack and sustained a cardiac arrest. Although her circulation was restored, she became brain dead.
🔹This painful experience pushed him to focus on Cardio-Pulmonary – Cerebral Resuscitation.
🔹Thereafter, he was praised for his creation of Multidisciplinary Medical- Surgical Intensive Care Unit and also for his first Paramedical ambulance services in the United States. Also, he established the World’s first Critical Care Fellowship Program.
🔹Furthermore, he created the guidelines for Emergency Medical Services or EMS and founded the International Resuscitation Research Centre at the University of Pittsburgh in 1979.
🔹Moreover, he published around 1300 scientific papers and 30 books and manuals. His book ABC of Resuscitation, published in the year 1957, actually established the basis for mass training of CPR.
🔹In fact, throughout his life, Dr. Safar kept campaigning for his long term goal – “To save the hearts and brains of those too young to die.”
A Day to Commemorate…
The Michelangelo of Acute Medicine
Dr. Peter Safar 🙏🏼
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