The invention of the modern ventilator

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

In August 1952, the Blegdam Hospital in the Danish capital Copenhagen was overwhelmed by hundreds of seriously ill polio patients. During the first weeks of the epidemic over 80 percent of the patients died, most within days of admission. The patients, who were mostly children, were dying of respiratory failure. Desperate for a solution an anaesthetist, Bjørn Iben, came up with a strategy that led to today’s ventilators and revolutionised medicine. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Anne Holton who was a medical student at the time of the polio epidemic and helped treat patients.

Photo A medical student in Denmark 1952 treating a polio patient in Blegdam Hospital, Copenhagen. Credit used with permission of Jørgen Viby-Mogensen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service
0:40.0	with me for Hana Hither and today I'm taking you back to 1952 and the invention of the
0:46.5	modern ventilator a device that's been crucial during the current coronavirus pandemic.
0:51.6	The technique was first used during a polio epidemic in Denmark,
0:56.2	which also led to the birth of intensive care medicine.
0:59.7	In the beginning, you didn't know anything about it,
1:05.0	and it was like today with a Corona,
1:08.0	it was completely unexpected.
1:11.0	So many small children and elder patients came in and they couldn't breathe.
1:17.0	It was completely unexpected.
1:20.0	How to treat them and what to do.
1:22.8	Anna Holton was a 20 year old medical student at Copenhagen University
1:27.2	when the city became the epicenter of one of the world's worst polio epidemics.
1:32.0	In late July 1952, the first case presented at Blyd Diamond
1:36.7	Hospital, the Danish capital's main treatment centre for communicable diseases.
	...

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