#asmund laerdal

[thinkingimages]

Asmund Laerdal with the CPR doll Resusci Anne.

Death Mask LISTEN

(Resusci Anne, also known as Rescue Anne, Resusci Annie, CPR Annie, Resuscitation Annie, or CPR Doll is a model of medical simulator used for teaching...)

[naturesethos]

This is the DEATH MASK of a young woman who drowned in the River Seine in the 1880's. As was customary in those days, her corpse was put on display in the Paris mortuary; in the hope that someone might recognize her and claim her body. The pathologist on duty became entranced by the girl with the enigmatic half-smile, and so he’d commissioned a plaster cast made of her face - this mask was then replicated many times over, and she became locally renowned as "L'Inconnue de la Seine,” or “The Unknown Woman of the Seine.” In 1955, a toy maker, named Asmund Laerdal, created what we now know as the CPR doll.  Wanting his mannequin to have a natural appearance, and remembering a mask on the wall of his grandparents' house many years earlier, he decided that the L'Inconnue de la Seine would become the face of his CPR doll - “Resusci-Anne”. As a result, this anonymous woman who drowned in the 19th century is now responsible for saving many, many lives the world over.  She is said to have the most kissed face of all time. Credit: The Chirurgeon's Apprentice