4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
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In 1960, Norwegian toymaker Åsmund Lærdal began selling his latest invention - a life-size training dummy designed to teach mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Resusci Anne is made of soft plastic and resembles an unconscious person.
Åsmund wanted as many people as possible to be trained in this new method of life saving and he hoped that a female manikin would be less threatening to trainees.
Anne's now believed to have saved the lives of more than two million people around the world.
Jacqueline Paine speaks to Åsmund’s son Tore Lærdal, who explains how his father had been inspired by a near-death experience
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
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(Photo: Åsmund Lærdal with Resusci Anne in water rescue. Credit: Lærdal Medical)
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0:29.2 | Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast |
0:37.4 | From the BBC World Service with me, Jacqueline Payne. |
0:43.8 | This is a story about how a near-death experience brought about the invention of the world's first life-size, |
0:55.3 | life-like resuscitation dummy, transforming medical training and helping to save millions of lives |
1:01.1 | around the world. |
1:09.5 | It's May 1960, and in the coastal town of Stavanger, Norway, after two years working with medical and technical experts, |
1:18.2 | Osmond Leidel's invention, Rossosie Annie, is finally ready. Here she is being introduced to viewers on the BBC. |
1:26.2 | Annie is lying on a table. She's very lifelike. She's had her hair |
1:30.2 | beautifully done. She's wearing a track suit. And I think she's probably made of some sort of plastic. |
1:36.3 | Yes, she is a plastic model and a rubber inflatable body. But the head and hands and feet are of |
1:43.4 | plastic. |
1:47.1 | Eight-year-old Toraleedal is just old enough to remember his father's enthusiasm for the new dummy. |
1:50.8 | My father, he just got so interested |
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