Professor Frank Pantridge
- Born
- 3 October 1916
- Died
- 26 December 2004 (age 88)
Professor Frank Pantridge developed the portable defibrillator, which has saved many lives.
As a child Pantridge was expelled from several schools. After a turbulent youth, he eventually graduated as one of the top students in his year, with a degree in medicine from Queen’s University Belfast.
On 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war against Nazi Germany, 22 year old Pantridge volunteered for the army. He promptly fell out with his boss at the military hospital he had been posted to in Singapore, and he was sent to Changi to join the Gordon Highlanders as a medical officer.
In 1942, Pantridge was taken captive as a prisoner of war, which may have triggered his interest in cardiology. In addition to spending time at numerous slave labour sites along the Siam-Burma Railway, Pantridge survived a few months in the infamous Tanbaya Hospital camp – otherwise known as the ‘death camp’. During his time here he developed Cardiac Beriberi, most likely caused by a diet of plain rice. Pantridge took note of his experiences, observed his fellow captives and after his repatriation, completed a report on the causes of the disease.
As the inventor of the portable defibrillator, he did perhaps more than any one individual to create pre-hospital coronary care
Pantridge returned from the war severely weakened, weighing less than five stone. However, he won a research fellowship at the University of Michigan and on completing this, returned to Belfast where he became a doctor at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He set up a cardiology unit and became known as ‘the father of emergency medicine’. This nickname represents the contribution he made to the health of society and was awarded to him because he invented the first portable defibrillator.
Weighing 70kg, it could be argued that the first portable defibrillator wasn’t really that easy to carry. However, Pantridge teamed up with a bioengineer, Dr John Anderson, to create the Pantridge Defibrillator (using NASA technology) which weighed a mere 3.2kg. Initially there were concerns that the equipment could be used to harm people, but Pantridge was quick to dispel these fears when he invented a safety measure to ensure that the defibrillator would not release a charge until it had detected ventricular fibrillation. Nowadays, automated external defibrillators are available across the UK.
It is estimated that early defibrillation can increase the survival rate after a cardiac arrest from 5% to more than 50%.
This profile was written by a Biology: Changing the World volunteer.