Though variations on CPR have been around for literally hundreds of years, it was not until the mid-20th century that CPR, as we know it, came to be recognized. Since then, there have been a wide-range of developments, with CPR training that focuses on children, pregnant women, the elderly, and even animals. Courses such as Advanced Cardiac Life Support Training, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support Training, afford emergency medical personnel the ability to tailor their care to the patient, no matter who it might be.
In the early 80s, as CPR was truly beginning to gain a foothold, a program was introduced in Washington, in which a dispatcher could coach the person who made an emergency call through the basics of CPR. It increased the number of people who received CPR, prior to emergency staff arriving, by nearly 50%, and was quickly adopted by the rest of the US and a number of other countries. As more and more CPR training programs become available, it is very heartening to know that life-saving care is also becoming increasingly available.
