The evolution of CPR
It was in 1740 that the Paris Academy of Sciences recommended the use of mouth-to-mouth breathing as well as chest compressions to save drowning victims pulled from the Seine River. More than 10 years after this recommendation, several organizations appeared in Holland as well as in England. However, CPR standards were established nearly 200 years later, in the 1950s.
Johns Hopkins University
In 1958, researchers at Johns Hopkins University accidentally discovered that by performing chest compressions on an animal in ventricular fibrillation, they could obtain a femoral pulse. It was following this chance discovery that CPR was born. In hospital settings, while open-chest cardiac compressions were already known, the closed-chest cardiac massage technique had just appeared. A few years later, Mr. William Kouwenhoven, also from Johns Hopkins University, discovered and introduced the first closed-chest defibrillator. This electrical engineer managed to develop a device capable of delivering consecutive electrical shocks in order to resuscitate an adult heart in spontaneous arrest.
This means that the 1950s marked the beginning of modern emergency cardiac care.
Since cardiovascular resuscitation techniques offered the best chances of survival to victims of cardiac arrest, a few years later, some experts in the medical field wanted to teach it to everyone. Many medical and legal implications made this teaching a complex task. It was cardiologist Dr. Anthony Graham who agreed in 1976, in the city of Toronto, to take on this major challenge by partnering with the « American Heart Association » (AHA). Since then, the growth of CPR training for the general public has never stopped. Each year, nearly 500,000 Canadians learn CPR thanks to the many learning methods made available to all.
ILCOR and all its members meet every five years to review and adopt recommendations aimed at improving the teaching and practice of resuscitation and first aid. ILCOR ensures the continuous improvement and refinement of CPR. It reviews the latest scientific breakthroughs and works tirelessly to improve the technique and practice of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
An innovative teaching method
Nowadays, the number of people with CPR training continues to grow. As a result, many public places have acquired Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs). Since this tool significantly increases the chances of survival for a person who is the victim of a cardiac arrest, it is in everyone's interest to be able to benefit from it. What is more, several companies have decided to subsidize the purchase of AEDs within their own communities, while some municipalities offer them on a voluntary and mandatory basis in many of their public centres, such as arenas and recreation centres.
It is with honour that our company is committed to standing out by offering online CPR and first aid training. Thanks to this innovative teaching method, more people will be able to benefit from the knowledge that makes resuscitation possible.
Key milestones
Discover the key milestones of CPR.
In Alloa, Scotland, surgeon William Tossach uses mouth-to-mouth breathing to revive a suffocated miner. Dr. Tossach documented this success 12 years later in what may be the first clinical description of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in the medical literature.
The Paris Academy of Sciences officially recommends resuscitation by insufflation for drowning victims.
London physicians William Hawes and Thomas Cogan found the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned (which would later become the Royal Humane Society) to help victims of sudden and unexpected death.