If you’ve heard Michael Jackson’s familiar refrain “Annie, are you OK?,” you know one of the first steps of performing CPR: assessing whether the other person is responsive. And that’s not a coincidence.
It’s said that this particular lyric was directly inspired by Resusci Anne — the name given to the anatomical manikin found in first aid classes around the world. And she’s far more than just a pretty face.
Receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, can double or triple the odds of survival during cardiac arrest; thanks largely to the creators of Resusci Anne, 65 percent of people in the U.S. say they’ve received CPR training and thousands of lives are saved each year.
But for a manikin whose ultimate purpose is to help keep people alive, Resusci Anne’s origin story is a macabre one. It begins at a Paris mortuary in the late 19th century.
