peter safar

Physician, Professor of anaesthesia-resuscitation in the University of Pittsburgh, father of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
born april 12 1924 in Vienna (Austria), died august 2 2003 in Mt. Lebanon, USA. Peter Safar was graduated from the University of Vienne in 1948. He married Eva Kyzivat, and moved from Vienna to title="Yale, USA in 1950 for surgical training. He worked in Peru">Lima] ([Peru], [1952]), then in [Baltimore] (USA, [1954]). He begun to work on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in [1956]; he worked with the firefighters to design the first emergency ambulance, and wrote the book ABC of resuscitation in [1957]. He established the country's first intensive care unit in [1958]. He then went to the University of Pittsburgh where established the most important academic anesthesiology department. In 1966, he was deeply marked by the death of his daughter, Elisabeth, at the age of 11 from an acute [asthma] crisis. He initiated the Freedom House Enterprise Ambulance Service, the first paramedical emergency service in [1967]. He also helped create the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine in [1976]. He retired from chairmanship of anesthesiology and founded the International Resuscitation Research Center (IRRC, now the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research) in [[1979. He retired from practicing in 1989, at the age of 65. He worked with the Laerdal company for the design of the CPR training mannequin Resusci Anne®. He was nominated three times for the Nobel prize in medicine. He also was a peace activist, member of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and of the World Federalist Association.

Peter Safar

See also