Peter Safar

Infobox Scientist
name = Peter Safar
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image_width =150px
caption = Peter Safar
birth_date = April 12, 1924
birth_place = Vienna
death_date = August 2, 2003
death_place = Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = Austrian
ethnicity =
field = Medicine
work_institutions =
alma_mater = University of Vienna
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = cardiopulmonary resuscitation
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author_abbrev_zoo =
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influenced =
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =

Peter Safar (April 12, 1924 – August 2, 2003) was an Austrian physician of Czech descent. He is credited with pioneering cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Early life

Safar was born in in Vienna, and graduated from the University of Vienna in 1948. He married Eva Kyzivat and moved from Vienna to Hartford, Connecticut in 1949 for surgical training at Yale University. He completed training in anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1952. That same year, he worked in Lima, Peru and founded that country's first academic anesthesiology department. In 1954, he became Chief of Anesthesiology at Baltimore City Hospital.

CPR

Together with James Elam, he rediscovered the airway, head tilt, chin lift (Step A) and the mouth-to-mouth breathing (Step B) components of CPR and influenced Norwegian doll maker Asmund Laerdal of Laerdal company to design and manufacture mannequins for CPR training called Resusci Anne. Safar, who began to work on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in 1956 demonstrated in a series of experiments on paralyzed human volunteers that rescuer exhaled air mouth-to-mouth breathing could maintain satisfactory oxygen levels in the non-breathing victim, and showed that even lay people could effectively perform mouth-to-mouth breathing to save lives. He combined the A (Airway) and the B (Breathing) of CPR with the C (chest compressions), and wrote the book "ABC of Resuscitation" in 1957, which established the basis for mass training of CPR. This A-B-C system for CPR training of the public was later adopted by the American Heart Association, which promulgated standards for CPR in [1973] .

Other Achievements

Other achievements included the establishment of the United States' first intensive care unit in 1958. In 1961, he went to the University of Pittsburgh, where he established its notable academic anesthesiology department and the world's first intensive care medicine training program. In 1966, he was deeply moved by the death of his daughter, Elizabeth, at the age of 11 from an acute asthmatic crisis. He initiated the Freedom House Enterprise Ambulance Service, one of the first prehospital emergency medical services in the United States in 1967 and developed standards for emergency medical technician (EMT) education and training, as well as standards for mobile intensive care ambulance design and equipment. He co-founded the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine in 1976, which is dedicated to saving lives in major disasters. He stepped down from the chairmanship of anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh and founded the International Resuscitation Research Center (now the [http://www.safar.pitt.edu/ University of Pittsburgh Safar Center for Resuscitation Research] ) in 1979. He practiced and taught clinical anesthesiology at Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh until the age of 65, but continued his research activities until his death. His lifelong goal was to "save the hearts and brains of those too young to die."

He was nominated three times for the Nobel prize in medicine.

Safar died in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

See also

* Mechanical ventilation

References

*Citation
id = PMID:17262769
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17262769
last=Acierno
first=Louis J
last2=Worrell
first2=L Timothy
publication-date=2007 Jan
year=2007
title=Peter Safar: father of modern cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
volume=30
issue=1
periodical=Clinical cardiology
pages=52–4
doi = 10.1002/clc.20042
*Citation
id = PMID:15898486
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15898486
last=Gunn
first=S W A
publication-date=
year=
title=The humanitarian imperative in disaster management--a memorial tribute to Professor Peter Safar.
volume=20
issue=2
periodical=Prehospital and disaster medicine : the official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the World Association for Emergency and Disaster Medicine in association with the Acute Care Foundation
pages=89–92
*Citation
id = PMID:15043226
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15043226
last=Weil
first=Max Harry
last2=Shoemaker
first2=William C
publication-date=2004 Feb
year=2004
title=Pioneering contributions of Peter Safar to intensive care and the founding of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
volume=32
issue=2 Suppl
periodical=Crit. Care Med.
pages=S8-10
*Citation
id = PMID:15008320
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15008320
last=Behringer
first=Wilhelm
publication-date=2004 Feb 16
year=2004
title= [Peter Safar--"father of resuscitation"]
volume=116
issue=3
periodical=Wien. Klin. Wochenschr.
pages=102–6
*Citation
id = PMID:14691793
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14691793
last=Mosesso
first=Vincent N
last2=Paris
first2=Paul M
publication-date=
year=
title=A tribute to Peter Safar, MD: Physician, researcher, mentor, visionary, humanist.
volume=8
issue=1
periodical=Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
pages=76–9
*Citation
id = PMID:14676499
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14676499
last=Martens
first=Patrick
last2=Mullie
first2=Arsene
publication-date=2003 Dec
year=2003
title=(Some of the) lessons learned from Peter Safar.
volume=10
issue=4
periodical=European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
pages=257
doi = 10.1097/01.mej.0000106008.50530.93
*Citation
id = PMID:14600663
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14600663
last=Crippen
first=David
publication-date=2003 Aug 20
year=2003
title=A eulogy: personal reflections on Dr. Peter Safar.
volume=5
issue=3
periodical=MedGenMed : Medscape general medicine
pages=27
*Citation
id = PMID:14583698
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14583698
last=Stoy
first=Walt
last2=Grandey
first2=Jack T
publication-date=2003 Oct
year=2003
title=Teacher, clinician ... friend. Tributes to Peter Safar.
volume=28
issue=10
periodical=JEMS : a journal of emergency medical services
pages=20–4
*Citation
id = PMID:12972888
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12972888
id = PMID:12972892
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12972892
last=Delooz
first=H
publication-date=2003 Sep
year=2003
title=International emergency medicine: the vision of a pioneer, Prof. Dr Peter Safar, on emergency medical care.
volume=10
issue=3
periodical=European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
pages=163
doi = 10.1097/01.mej.0000091882.98280.37

External links

* [http://www.post-gazette.com/lifestyle/20020331safar0331fnp2.asp Dr. Peter Safar: A life devoted to cheating death]
* [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=194106 Peter Josef Safar]
* [http://www.safar.pitt.edu/content/news/2003/images/Mitka-JAMA%202003.pdf Safar article in JAMA]
* [http://www.safar.pitt.edu/ Safar Center at the University of Pittsburgh]
* [http://www.ccm.upmc.edu/ University of Pittsburgh Department of Critical Care Medicine]