The face of CPR

Abstract

She is known by many names—L’Inconnue de la Seine (Unknown Woman of Seine), the Mona Lisa of Seine, Resusci Annie, and The Most Kissed Girl in the World. She might not have lived to tell the tale, but she has transformed training for medical emergencies and saved many lives. She is the face that we have all kissed during practice for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but do we ever stop and wonder about the story behind this mesmerising face?

Judging history’s heroes and monsters

“…As Kaupp-Roberts2 and Loke and McKernon3 demonstrate in linked articles, these questions are very much alive in medicine today. Kaupp-Roberts maintains that J Marion Sims, developer of the first successful surgical intervention for vesicovaginal fistula and inventor of the Sims vaginal speculum, is a morally questionable figure.…”

“…And what of “Resusci-Annie”? In the late 19th century a young woman was found dead in the Seine and, by routes too circuitous for fiction, her tranquil and slightly mysterious face was transposed on to manikins for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, making her “the most kissed girl in the world.”3 Should we be concerned about this circulation of her image without anything resembling consent?…”

The face of CPR: is Annie still OK?

“…The story behind Resusci Annie and her legacy is interesting,1 but the manikins I have encountered in medical simulation training have been exclusively male. Even Annie’s face on first aid training manikins conflicts with the male body that often accompanies it.…”