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James Jude, MD Co-inventor of CPR, Dies At 87
New submitter voxelman writes: Jim Jude, my uncle, was a kind and modest man. The impact of his insight into the significance of a change in blood pressure from the application of defibrillation paddles to a dog's chest has led to the saving of millions of lives through cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). His passing is a release from a debilitating illness that made a mockery of his contributions to medical science. He will be missed by all that knew him.
If it wasn't for CPR starting to catch on I wouldn't even exist. April 16, 1963 a man left what is now the Idaho Nuclear Laboratory where he had been training people on CPR before the push in the 70's for it to be main stream. Because of poor funding of education my mother, 9, was on a crowded school bus when the emergency door popped open. She fell from the bus, and died when she hit the pavement at 35 mph. That man wasn't too far behind the bus, and was able to perform CPR to keep her heart going until the ambulance was able to arrive.
Yes, because bloodletting and anal fumigation by tobacco smoke used in that "CPR" of the 1700s are exactly the same as modern CPR.
James Jude is acknowledged as one of three men who helped create the modern techniques of CPR. The summary is just fine.
I'd love to hear how people performed CPR in the 1700s. Did they have a clue what they were doing or were they just beating the Devil out of the man?
Jude was a member of a team of people who worked out compression frequency and breathing and then demonstrated that it worked on humans as an alternative to cutting them open and massaging their heart by hand.
Prior to that, people just blew air into you, then pushed on your chest to push the air out or moved your arms and chest around to get air in and out of your lungs. They didn't even think about trying to get your heart to beat for you, except maybe by accident.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Who modded this bullshit up? In the early 20th century, the state of the art in reviving people was artificial respiration. You ever see those looney toons cartoons where the drowned cat or whatever gets their arms pumped and starts squirting water like a fountain? That's how it was done back then, but with less squirting. Raise the shoulders to expand the chest and thus inhale, lower them to exhale (it's part of why crucifixion is fatal and why "positional asphyxiation" is a thing).
You want to start someone's heart again? Well, if you died in 1930, I hear some guy at John Hopkins was working on a thing where they use Edison's lightning to zap your heart into dancing again. What was his name again? Oh, William Kouwenhoven, who was working with a team of other guys nobody's heard of, some kid named James Jude.
Prior to that, they cut you open and massaged your heart. Or they just called time of death, after all, your heart wasn't beating anymore so you're dead and your soul's gone to its final judgement.
On the one hand, yes, CPR traces it's history to the 1700s, even if it wasn't the entire modern version.
On the other hand I can find at least two references which acknowledge Jude as being part of the modern version of it.
But, more to the point ... thanks to all of the people throughout history who have helped us find ways to save lives.
And you can be damned sure that the use of CPR in its modern form has saved a tremendous amount of lives.
Sorry for your loss, voxelman. Few people can claim to have contributed to saving so many lives.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I'm a CPR instructor and I will mention this to the class of 16 that I'm teaching in 2 hours. Out of hospital cardiac arrest survival rates are still an abysmally low 8% because bystanders are often paralyzed, fearful, unwilling to get involved, and timidly participate when they do. The American Heart Association's new goal is to double survival rates by 2020. In his memory, you should find a class, bring a friend, learn how to react and be willing to do so.