Laerdal was founded in 1940 as a company that published children's books and made toys for the purpose of 'child's joy'.
In the following years more than 100 million Laerdal Tomte cars were sold in 100 different countries. The Laerdal Anne dolls became popular in Europe.
The pioneering work in the field of soft plastic was later used to create the first exercise dummy for CPR training, which changed the direction of the company.
The need for a lifelike manikin to train the new concept of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation led Åsmund S. Lærdal, together with Dr. Bjørn Lind and Dr. Peter Safar, to develop Resusci Anne in 1960.
Today more than 300 million people have received CPR training, and most of them have learned it at Resusci Anne. It is estimated that at least 2 million lives have been saved... and we continue.
"Laerdal has been influential in promoting research and implementation of methods that support the core of our research principles, such as the Utstein Formula of Survival, the Chain of Survival and the Circle of Learning.
We use evidence-based knowledge to develop and continuously refine our products and services. We believe we can help save most lives through our efforts to improve the effectiveness of training and through local implementation."
