History Of CPR
Modern CPR developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The discoverers
of mouth-to-mouth ventilation were Drs. James Elam and Peter Safar.
Though mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was described in the Bible (mostly
performed by midwives to resuscitate newborns) it fell out of practice
until it was rediscovered in the 1950s.
In early 1960 Drs. Kouwenhoven, Knickerbocker, and Jude discovered the
benefit of chest compression to achieve a small amount of artifical
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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