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Heartline Magazine April - June 2003
Milestone : Dr. Safar dies at 79
Dr. Peter Safar, a pioneer in emergency medicine who was
also regarded as the father of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, died at his home
in Pittsburgh, USA of cancer on Sunday August 3, 2003. He was 79.
Dr. Safar is credited with developing the "ABC's of CPR", a
lifesaving technique taught to everyone from surgeons to Boy Scouts.
Born in 1924 in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Safar studied at the
University of Vienna and Yale University before studying anaesthesiology at the
University of Pennsylvania.
In the 1950s, he established anaesthesiology departments in
Peru and Baltimore, briefly joining the staff of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Dr. Safar established the first intensive care unit in 1958
at the Baltimore City Hospital.
Also in the 1950s, Dr. Safar developed a method of
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation that he combined with chest compression, a rescue
technique that had already been researched and documented by others. The result
was a first-aid method that many people learn using a lifelike mannequin known
as a Resusci-Anne doll.
Dr. Safar's work with CPR was just one aspect of his goal of
creating a system of care from accident scene to operating room.
The aim was to prepare the people who show up at an accident
scene first - the passer-by - so they can sustain a victim until a paramedic
arrives. And then, the paramedic cares for the patient until they reach the
emergency room. In the 1960s, he was one of the founding members of the U.S.
National Research Council's Committee on EMS. He also established guidelines for
ambulance design and emergency medical technician an paramedic training.
Dr. Safar stepped down as Chairman on the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center's anaesthesiology department in 1979 and went on to
establish the International Resuscitation Research Center, which he ran until
1994. It later became the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research.
Most recently, he was studying if cooling the body just a
few degrees can prevent brain damage in people who survive cardiac arrest but
are left unconscious.
Dr. Safar is survived by his wife and two sons.
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