The History of Cpr

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation or better known as CPR is the revival or return to function of the heart and lungs. This is done by Cardiac massage, artificial respiration, and drugs to maintain the circulation of oxygenated blood to the brain.

In 1950's a surgeon opened the chest of a patient that suffered a heart attack and subsequent and cardiac arrest. After opening the papatientschest he performed a heart massage, which was a successful maneuver. This was turned out to be the basis for the chest compression which is used today. In the Early 1960's Drs. Kouwenhoven, Knickerbocker, and Jude discovered that small circulation to the heart can be achieved by the chest compression.

Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is described in the bible; this was mostly preformed by midwives on newborn babies. In the Bible around 800 BC is the apparent document mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (Bible, 2 Kings, IV 34). Modern day mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for ventilation was discovered by Dr. James Elam and Peter Safar.

Some early methods of resuscitating people are the heat, flagellation, bellows, inversion, Barrel, Russian method. In the Heat method people realized that body goes cold when lifeless, so they connected heat with life. Using a burn excrement or hot water they would use that to restore life. The Flagellation method in the early ages the rescuers would whip the victim to try and stimulate a response from them. The Bellows Method

(1530) people would actually take hot air from a fir place and blow it in to the victim's mouth. This method was used for almost 300 years. The success of this method inspired the Bag-Valve-Mask Resuscitators. The inversion method (1770) was practiced almost 3,500 years before but became popular in Europe. This method involved hanging the victim upside down for his/her feet. The Barrel Method (1773) was when the rescuer put the victim on a large wine barrel and rolled them back and forth. By doing this the chest cavity, forcing air out, and then a release of pressure allowed air being drawn back in. The Russian Method (1803) was basically them trying to slow down the metabolism by freezing the body under a layer of snow or ice. Unfortunately they didn't realize the most important organ needed to be frozen was the brain to accomplish this.

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation has come along way from the early stages. Fortunately through trial and error Doctor's have come up