New Delhi: In the late 1950s, a Norwegian toy maker, Asmund Laerdal, received an unusual request. The challenge was to create a lifelike training mannequin that looked like an unconscious person. This was for teaching a new lifesaving method called cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), developed by Austrian doctor Peter Safar. The technique involved chest compressions to keep blood flowing after the heart stops functioning. But demonstrations often caused broken ribs, making it hard to teach safely.
Laerdal had a background in soft plastics and had worked on children’s toys and model cars. He had even helped create fake wounds for emergency drills. His own experience saving his son from drowning by pressing on his chest inspired him. Together with Safar, he set out to build a model to practice CPR on.
He believed the mannequin should appear approachable. He also thought men would be reluctant to perform mouth-to-mouth on a male dummy. So he decided the model should be a woman. The search for a suitable face began.
The face appeared in an unexpected place, a painting hanging in the home of Laerdal’s in-laws at Stavanger in Norway. It showed a young woman with hair tied back, eyes closed gently and lips curved in a soft but sad smile. The serene image was familiar across Europe in plaster casts. It was known as L’Inconnue de la Seine, the Unknown Woman of the Seine.
The legend says she was a young woman who drowned in Paris in the 19th century. Unidentified bodies were displayed at a morgue near Notre Dame to help find relatives. Parisians often came to look. A pathologist was struck by the beauty of this young woman’s peaceful face. He commissioned a sculptor to make a death mask, a mold taken just after death.
No official records confirm this tale.
The mask captured imaginations, and replicas spread widely. Her face adorned homes and inspired writers and artists. Albert Camus called her the “drowned Mona Lisa”. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke said her smile was “deceptive, as if she knew”.
In 1960, Laerdal gave this face new purpose by using it on the world’s first CPR training doll. Named Resusci Anne, she had a soft chest for practicing compressions and an open mouth for rescue breaths. Her calm face became a global symbol for lifesaving skills. In English-speaking countries, she was called CPR Annie.
The phrase “Annie, are you OK?” became standard in training to check for responsiveness. The doll travelled from fire stations to schools and hospitals worldwide.
In the 1980s, pop star Michael Jackson popularised the phrase in his hit “Smooth Criminal”. He heard it during first aid training and wove it into the song’s heartbeat rhythm: “Annie, are you OK? So, Annie, are you OK?”
Asmund Laerdal passed away in 1981. His company, Laerdal Medical, grew into a leader in emergency medical training technology. Annie’s design evolved, adding lights and sensors to improve feedback. However, her face remained unchanged.
Laerdal Medical’s Communications Director Pal Oftedal says Annie’s origin story may be a mystery, but her impact is undeniable. About one in 20 people witness hear attack, with 70 percent occurring outside the home. Immediate CPR can double or triple survival chances, according to the American Heart Association.
Today, Laerdal offers mannequins with diverse ethnicities, ages and body types. Over 500 million people have trained using Annie and her companions.
Oftedal believes that whoever Annie truly was, she would feel proud of her role in saving countless lives.