CPR

Before Peter Safar, a person who stopped breathing in the street was simply dead. Safar established that tilting the head back and lifting the chin opens the airway, that a rescuer's exhaled breath carries enough oxygen to keep someone alive — he proved it on paralysed volunteers — and that airway, breathing and chest compressions belong together as one drill. He wrote 'ABC of Resuscitation' in 1957 and had a Norwegian doll-maker build Resusci Anne so that anyone could practise. He also opened the first American intensive-care unit and the first modern ambulance service. His parents, Jewish doctors in Vienna, had both been thrown out of their posts under the Nuremberg Laws.

Part of “The Gifts of the Jews” — verified Jewish contributions to the world, with sources.