Marshall Brain

Behold cardio pulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. But where did it come from? Meet Peter Safar, born in Austria in 1924. It’s no surprise that Peter studied medicine. His father was an ophthalmologist, and his mother was a pediatrician. After earning his M.D. from the University of Vienna, Peter moved to Connecticut’s Yale-New Haven hospital in 1950, and concluded his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. From there he traveled to several hospitals, eventually settling in Baltimore. While at the Baltimore City Hospital, Peter researched basic life support techniques. Along with James Elom, Peter combined several existing procedures from his colleagues at Johns Hopkins to create something he called the ABCs, which stands for a patient’s airway, Breathing, and Circulation. Today we call this Stuff of Genius CPR. CPR stands for cardio pulmonary resuscitation. Here are the basics. First step is A for Airway. The rescuer tilts the victim’s head while lifting the chin. This moves the tongue from the back of the throat and clears the airway. The next step is B for Breathing. Victims who can breathe on their own should start breathing when the airway is clear. If the patient isn’t breathing, their nose is pinched, and the rescuer forms a seal between their mouths using either mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or a CPR mask. The rescuer breathes air into the victim, trying to make their chest visibly rise. The next step is C for circulation. Through compressing the chest, the rescuer hopes to provide circulation of oxygen through the body. The combination of these techniques has saved countless lives.

So how genius is this inventor? On the American Dream scale, he gets a four. Peter Safar did not consider himself the inventor of CPR, but he made other notable innovations such as the first U.S. Intensive Care Unit. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize three times. On the benefits to humanity scale he gets a five. It is impossible to precisely count the number of people saved by CPR. But the only purpose for this invention is to save lives. If that’s not a benefit to humanity, then what is? On the ripple effect scale, he gets a five. CPR should only be attempted by people trained to perform it in an emergency, but it is basic first aid, and you don’t have to be a doctor to learn it. Organizations throughout the world offer CPR certification, and there’s probably a program near you.