Laerdal Medical – History – Today
Laerdal Medical AS first started in the 1940’s as a small publishing house and soon expanded their business into manufacturing plastic toys in the early 50s.
After gaining substantial knowledge of toy production Laerdal turned the focus into producing wound simulation equipment and resuscitation training equipment. The turning of the business is symbolised by a girl who died in the late 1980s.
The girl from the River Seine
At the turn of the 19th century, the body of a young girl was pulled out of the River Seine in Paris. There was no evidence of any violence so it was assumed she had taken her own life. Her identity was unknown and in the 19th century it was customary that a death mask was made in such circumstances. Romantic stories that speculated on this mystery were published. According to one, her death was the result of an unrequited romance. This story became popular throughout Europe, as did reproductions of her death mask.
From the mask of tragedy to the kiss of life
Generations later, the young girl from the River Seine was brought back to life when Asmund S. Laerdal started to develop a realistic training aid to teach mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was so moved by the story of the young girls death that he adopted her mask to use for the face of this new training manikin. Resusci Anne is now the the most famous resuscitation manikin in existence!
Dedicated diversity
Today, Laerdal Medical is dedicated to helping save lives with products for CPR training, Airway Management, Advanced Life Support Training, Spinal Motion restriction, Trauma Training, Monitoring, Defibrillation, Patient Simulation made for using traditional basic, intermediate and advanced training techniques combined with micro simulation and virtual reality.
