How a drowning victim became a lifesaving icon

In the precocious 1950s, Norwegian toymaker Asmund Laerdal received an antithetic brief: to plan a life-like mannequin that resembled an unconscious patient.

Peter Safar, an Austrian doctor, had conscionable developed the basics of CPR, a lifesaving method that keeps humor and oxygen flowing to the encephalon and captious organs aft the bosom has stopped beating.

He was anxious to thatch it to the public, but had a occupation – the heavy thorax compressions often resulted successful fractured ribs, which meant applicable demonstrations were impossible.

It was successful his hunt for a solution that helium was introduced to Laerdal, an intrepid innovator past successful his forties who possessed extended cognition of brushed plastics, honed done years of enactment with children’s toys and exemplary cars. He had adjacent begun to collaborate with the Norwegian Civil Defence to make imitation wounds for grooming purposes.

Laerdal, who had rescued his lad from drowning by applying unit to his ribcage and pushing h2o retired of his lungs conscionable a fewer years earlier, was anxious to help, and the 2 decided to make a grooming model.

The Norwegian toymaker had a vision: It needed to look unthreatening, and assuming that men would not privation to execute mouth-to-mouth resuscitation connected a antheral dummy, it should beryllium a woman.

So helium went looking for a face.

Resusci Anne oregon CPR Annie, the lifesaving grooming dummy [Creative Commons]

The chartless pistillate of the Seine

It was connected the partition of his parents-in-law’s location successful the picturesque Norwegian metropolis of Stavanger that helium recovered it.

It was an lipid coating of a young woman, her hairsbreadth parted and gathered astatine the nape of her neck. Her eyes were closed peacefully, her lashes matted, and her lips curled successful a faint, sorrowful smile.

This was a look which, successful the signifier of a plaster cast, had adorned homes crossed Europe for decades.

There are galore rumours arsenic to however the archetypal disguise was created, but 1 communicative that has cemented itself arsenic municipality fable is that it was of a pistillate who had supposedly drowned successful the Seine River successful 19th-century Paris.

In the French superior astatine the time, it was communal for the bodies of the deceased who could not beryllium identified to beryllium placed connected achromatic marble slabs and displayed successful the model of the city’s morgue situated adjacent Notre Dame Cathedral.

The intent of this signifier was to spot if immoderate members of the nationalist would recognise the deceased and beryllium capable to supply accusation astir them. Yet, successful reality, it became a morbid attraction for Parisians.

As the communicative goes, a pathologist, struck by her quality and serene expression, commissioned a sculptor to nutrient a decease disguise of her face, a plaster oregon wax mould of a idiosyncratic made soon aft death.

No documents past successful the Paris constabulary archives, and it is intolerable to verify the information of this story.

However, a sculpture of the expected decease disguise captured the public’s imagination, and reproductions of it began to circulate successful the aboriginal 20th century.

Her look soon decorated Parisian salons and affluent people’s homes.

The visage was known arsenic L’Inconnue de la Seine – the Unknown Woman of the Seine – and it became a muse for writers, poets, and artists.

The French writer Albert Camus called her the “drowned Mona Lisa”, portion the Austrian writer Rainer Maria Rilke said of her serene expression, “It was beautiful, due to the fact that it smiled, due to the fact that it smiled truthful deceptively, arsenic if it knew.”

Resusci Anne

It is not known whether Laderdal was alert of the fable down the coating successful Stavanger, but successful 1960, helium gave it caller beingness erstwhile the archetypal CPR doll was officially launched with the subject’s face.

The doll was fixed a brushed integrative torso – a compressible thorax for practising CPR – and unfastened lips for mouth-to-mouth rescue.

She travelled astir the world, appearing successful occurrence stations, schools, hospitals, scout groups, and hose grooming centres, wherever she was utilized for CPR training.

She was besides yet fixed a name, “Resusci Anne,” by Laerdal, a shortening of the connection “resuscitation”. Anne is simply a communal pistillate sanction successful Norway and France, which suggests that by this stage, the toymaker was alert of the fable down the face. In the English-speaking world, she became known arsenic “CPR Annie”.

“Annie, are you OK?” became the go-to grooming operation arsenic radical simulated however to cheque for responsiveness successful the lawsuit of a cardiac arrest.

In the 1980s, astir a period aft Annie was reported to person been recovered successful the Seine, Michael Jackson immortalised her successful popular culture.

As the communicative goes, the superstar heard the operation during a archetypal assistance grooming league and, struck by the bushed and urgency of it, worked it into the chart-topping song, Smooth Criminal, repeating it similar a heartbeat: “Annie, are you OK? So, Annie, are you OK? Are you OK, Annie?”

Volunteers acquisition CPR grooming by St John Ambulance instructors arsenic portion of a people for learning however to administer COVID-19 vaccines astatine Manchester United Football Club connected January 30, 2021, successful Manchester, England [Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]

‘She would beryllium proud’

Laerdal died successful 1981, but the institution helium founded, Laerdal Medical, continues to beryllium a juggernaut successful exigency aesculapian grooming and the improvement of cutting-edge healthcare technology.

Annie herself has received technological upgrades, including flashing lights, lung feedback, and sensors that indicated if compressions were off-rhythm.

But her look stayed the same.

Pal Oftedal, manager of Corporate Communications astatine Laerdal Medical, says that careless of whether the communicative down Annie is true, she has had a affirmative interaction connected engaging radical worldwide successful the lifesaving signifier of CPR.

He said that 1 successful 20 radical would witnesser a cardiac apprehension successful their lifetime, with 70 percent occurring extracurricular the home.

The American Heart Association says that contiguous CPR tin treble oregon adjacent triple a person’s accidental of endurance aft a cardiac arrest.

Annie has been joined by a caller enactment of mannequins featuring a scope of ethnicities, ages, assemblage types, and facial features arsenic Laderdal seeks to diversify its merchandise offerings.

Laerdal Medical estimates that Annie and her chap resuscitation mannequins person been utilized to bid much than 500 cardinal radical worldwide.

Oftedal says that helium believes whoever Annie was, helium is definite “she would beryllium arrogant of the important publication she has made to the world”.

This nonfiction is portion of ‘Ordinary items, bonzer stories’, a bid astir the astonishing stories down well-known items. 

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