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At the end of the 150th century, the body of a young woman was fished from the Seine in Paris. The reasons for the girl’s death remain a mystery to this day, but over the years she has become the most famous person to die in this river. For almost XNUMX years, the mystery of her identity has not been solved, which is why she was called “L’Inconnue de la Seine” – the Stranger from the Seine.
- In the XNUMXth century, reproductions of a cast of her face were sold in souvenir shops in Paris
- Her face attracts with a calm, slightly smiling expression on her face. She became an inspiration for many artists, and Albert Camus called her “drowned Mona Lisa”
- Thanks to the Norwegian toy manufacturer, drowned woman has become the face of mannequins for learning respiratory resuscitation
- According to CBOS research, only every fifth Pole is able to properly provide first aid to an injured person
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
The exact history of what happened to ‘L’Inconnue’ (French for ‘stranger’) both before and after her drowning is still a matter of debate and merely a fanciful Parisian legend. Since her body had no wounds or blemishes, it was presumed that she had committed suicide.
After being pulled out of the Seine, she was taken to a Paris morgue and exposed to the public for identification along with the bodies of other unknown deceased, but no passers-by recognized her. However, this did not mean that she went unnoticed.
An urban legend has it that the pathologist in the morgue where her body had ended up was so fascinated by her beauty that he summoned a “mouleur”, or former, who preserved her face in a plaster death mask.
- They escaped from the war. “I was learning how to administer chemistry from the Internet”
Today, however, many doubt that the flawless features of the cast may have come from a drowned girl — skeptics suggest that the face of cadavers, especially those taken from the river, would be distorted, distended, or scarred.
Inspiration for artists
In the decades that followed, the mask was mass-produced and sold as a decorative element for the walls of private homes. This happened first in Paris and then all over Europe. She became a muse for artists, poets, and other writers, including Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Vladimir Nabokov. “L’Inconnue” hung in the studio of Albert Camus, who called it “the drowned Mona Lisa”.
Over half a century, the wave of extraordinary fame and fascination with the 16-year-old turned into something completely different with the help of a man who was born several decades after her death.
His name was Asmund Laerdal and he was a toy manufacturer from Norway. His business started in the early 40s by printing books and calendars for children, and then moved to the production of small wooden toys.
After the war, Laerdal began experimenting with a new type of material that was just entering mass production — plastic.
Using this innovative substance at that time, he produced one of his most famous toys: the “Anne” doll, which in post-war Norway was hailed as the “toy of the year”. It was a hit not only because of the material, but also because of the closed lids.
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But how did the children’s toy become an important component in the production of life-saving education equipment?
The history of resuscitation dates back to the 1957th century, but it was not until XNUMX that Peter Safar published the book “ABC of Resuscitation”, in which he proposed the method of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
In the 60s, a group of anesthesiologists turned to Laerdal with an order. They needed a doll to demonstrate American Heart Association’s standard of resuscitation techniques — a procedure known as CPR. It turned out that they had found the right man. Together with scientists — including especially Peter Safar — Laerdal has embarked on a project that has gone down in history.
Phantom, that is Anne
Aside from the complex technical issues involved in creating a mannequin that needed to have a movable chest in order to exercise adequate compressions, the toy manufacturer had a lot of confusion. — what face to give a mannequin? Then he remembered the face of the Seine Stranger he had seen at his in-laws in the living room. He had no such problem with the name of his new creation. He decided that the mannequin could be named after his best toy.
It is estimated that, since the production of the first series of mannequins, approximately 300-400 million people have trained on such equipment.
The text “Annie, are you ok?” from Michael Jackson’s song “Smooth Criminal” is actually derived from an American CPR training in which students practice talking to their unresponsive plastic patient, CPR Annie.
Regardless of who this face belonged to in the XNUMXth century, the final story of L’Inconnue and Anne is something that goes beyond one person — it is a face that has become the embodiment of the ideal of beauty for generations. Only then did it become a symbol of the life saving technique that saved millions of people from death.
Today, many different models of mannequins have been created, but the most popular is still Little Anne, or little Anne. According to CBOS research, only every fifth Pole is able to properly provide first aid to an injured person.
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Cardiopulmonary resuscitation. General first aid rules
The general rule for adult CPR is to start with 30 compressions and 2 breaths. Repeat these steps until the victim regains their breath or an ambulance arrives.
Compressions should be performed in the center of the chest using your own body weight. Hands should be clasped, elbows locked. 30 compressions should be performed to a depth of about 5-6 cm (for an adult), with a frequency of 100-120 compressions per minute.
When it comes to inhaling, you should inhale about 0,5 liters of air — so that the victim’s chest is lifted. The nose of the person we are helping should be blocked and the head tilted back.
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