Would Chest Compressions from 57 Rescuers Save Albert Frick from Landry ’s Paralysis?

Four days after undergoing two dental extractions, 22-yr-old Albert R. Frick (1904 to 1927) found himself hospitalized in a wheelchair as first his legs weakened and then his diaphragm became completely flaccid from acute ascending or Landry ’s paralysis, now better known as Guillain-Barré syndrome. For 4 days in St. Francis Hospital, Evanston, Illinois, Frick’s employer (far right), Frick ’s father (next to the employer), and scores of friends and coworkers toiled in pairs to rhythmically compress and release Frick ’s chest. Finally, at 10:02pm on Thursday, March 10, 1927, Albert Frick was pronounced dead. Before critical care and ventilators were commonplace, salesmen, bookkeepers, stenographers —all told, 57 rescuers—had tried to keep young Frick breathing during his 108 h of respiratory paralysis. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)

Source: Anesthesiology - January 25, 2019 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research