According to a newspaper article from 1913, Ada Bradshaw of Leavenworth, Kansas, named his newborn baby boy Pulmotor Bradshaw. Why?
The child came into the world and for an hour refused to breathe, despite the efforts of physicians. The new city pulmotor was sent for and the infant responded almost instantly when the oxygen was applied.
I haven’t been able to track down any records for Pulmotor Bradshaw — the only baby named Pulmotor that I’ve ever heard of — but I can tell you a a few things about the pulmotor itself.
What was it?
The pulmotor was an early resuscitation device designed to pump oxygen into and out of the lungs.
The device was patented in 1907 by Heinrich Dräger of Germany.
Several years later, U.S. fire departments, police departments and hospitals began acquiring and using pulmotors.
A New York Times article from late 1912 mentioned that New York City’s second pulmotor had just arrived, but that NYC was still behind Chicago, where there were already three pulmotors.
“Pulmotors were used extensively in Europe and the U. S. as late as the 1940s,” according to the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.
Sources:
- Draeger Pulmotor | Wood Library-Museum
- “Name Their Baby “Pulmotor”.” Spokesman-Review 12 Oct. 1913: 3.
- “Pulmotor to Be Seen Here.” New York Times 8 Oct. 1912.
Image: Gas Age-Record, 4 Mar. 1922, p. 257
