PITTSBURGH, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The American Heart Association announced Monday the death of Dr. Peter Safar, the physician credited with inventing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
AHA officials said Safar died Sunday at the age of 79, but no cause of death was announced.
The BBC said Safar -- whose pioneering "Kiss of Life" procedure is credited with saving countless lives -- was born in Austria in the 1920s and survived a Nazi labor camp before emigrating to the U.S. after the war.
Although there are ancient references to the apparent use of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in the Bible, the technique fell out of practice until rediscovered by Safar in the 1950s. Also credited with playing a key role was his colleague, Dr James Elam.
In the 1960s the technique was combined with new chest compressions, producing what's known today as CPR, or cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
Safar was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh medical school. He also helped create the organization that, in 1976, became the World Association for disaster and Emergency Medicine.