History of the Science of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Abstract

Through much of recorded history, resuscitation was forbidden. Although written accounts of resuscitation can be found, it is clear that successful reversal of death was thought to have been performed directly by God or through appointed agents. For example, stories of resuscitation in the Bible involve prophets acting clearly as vessels through which God’s power restores life (1,2). In these and other resuscitation accounts, reversal of death was considered the province of God and not something mere mortals should undertake. This “prohibition” against resuscitation was challenged during the Enlightenment, an amazing period of scientific discovery. Starting around 1750, scientists and philosophers questioned the dogma of the past and came to believe that humans could understand and control their own destinies. They wished to discover the workings of the universe as well as the ticking of life itself. To speak of the science of resuscitation one must begin where science begins. And there is no more crucial ingredient to science than the scientific method—a key achievement of the Enlightenment. The intellectual giants of the Enlightenment claimed that the world could best be understood through scientific discovery, and the means to achieve this was the scientific method.