We are pleased to announce that a digital copy of Peter Safar’s Autobiography, Volume 5 of the Careers in Anesthesiology series published in 2000 by the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology is now available free of charge on the Wood Library website:
The original hardcover book version was highly sought after, and all the copies were either promptly distributed by the late Dr. Safar or purchased. The book is a remarkable historical treatise that covers multiple topics of interest including the birth of CPR, the groundbreaking Freedom House Ambulance Service, which represented first Paramedic Service in United States, the origins of the Departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the beginnings of the International Resuscitation Research Center (IRRC), now called the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh, and many other topics. It also features details of the incredible life of Dr. Peter Safar.
This wonderful development was initially spearheaded by an inquiry from Dr. Allan Braslow and Virginia Klunder and made possible by Matthew Toland, Director of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology and Allison Seagram, Wood Library Archivist and Librarian. We are grateful to all these individuals for their efforts to make this historically important book readily available once again.