James Jude | Early leader in CPR, 87

James Jude, 87, one of the experts credited with pioneering lifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation, died Tuesday in Coral Gables, Fla., after a long illness.

In the late 1950s, Dr. Jude and two electrical engineers started with research on dogs that led to development of chest compression. This was later combined with work by others on artificial respiration to become CPR.

Before their brainstorm, which led to hundreds of scientific articles and two books by Dr. Jude, patients were out of luck until they reached a hospital. There, before CPR, doctors had to slit the chest to manually massage the heart to try to get it beating again.

"He was told he had to have 100 successful resuscitations before he could present it - that was accomplished quickly," said his wife of 63 years, Sallye.

In 1963, CPR was formally endorsed by the American Heart Association and is now commonplace, used by lifeguards, paramedics, and regular people.

- Miami Herald