Peter Safar

Peter Safar (1924–2003) was a Czech-born Austrian-American anesthesiologist who helped establish modern cardiopulmonary resuscitation and advance emergency medicine.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A set of emergency procedures that uses chest compressions and, when appropriate, rescue breaths to maintain circulation and oxygenation. Safar helped combine rescue breathing and chest compressions into a practical resuscitation method.
Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation: A rescue-breathing technique that moves air from a rescuer into another person’s lungs. Safar’s studies helped establish its effectiveness as a component of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
University of Vienna: A public research university in Vienna, Austria, founded in 1365. Safar studied medicine there before emigrating to the United States.
James Elam: An American physician who conducted early clinical research on mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Elam’s experiments with Safar helped demonstrate the value of expired-air rescue breathing.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training: Instruction in recognizing cardiac arrest and performing resuscitation procedures. Safar and Laerdal used realistic training mannequins to teach CPR at scale.
Chain of survival: A sequence of coordinated actions intended to improve outcomes after cardiac arrest. Safar’s advocacy for organized emergency response anticipated the emphasis on rapid, linked interventions.
Chest compression: Repeated pressure on the chest that generates blood flow during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Compressions supply circulation while rescue breathing supports oxygenation in the method Safar helped promote.
Yale School of Medicine: The medical school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Safar completed anesthesiology training at Yale after arriving in the United States.
William Kouwenhoven: An American electrical engineer whose research helped establish external chest compression for cardiac resuscitation. Kouwenhoven’s compression method combined with the rescue breathing Safar investigated.
Emergency airway management: Assessment and treatment of airway obstruction or inadequate ventilation during urgent care. Safar’s research translated anesthesiology airway techniques into emergency settings.

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Frank PantridgeRelated: Safar’s resuscitation work formed part of the emergency-care landscape Pantridge helped transform.