Carl Gunnar Engström

The basic principle of the mechanical ventilator is still the same today, but a technological leap was made with the Siemens-Elema servo fan in the 1970s.

He got his PhD in medicine at the Uppsala University in 1963 with a thesis entitled The clinical application of prolonged controlled ventilation: with special reference to a method developed by the author.

A polio patient with a paralyzed diaphragm would typically spend two weeks inside an iron lung while recovering.

This problem solved Engström with his respirator, by blowing air into the patient's lungs via a simple tube through the trachea.

Mivab, the company that first manufactured Engström's respirator, is today a part of the Datex / Ohmeda division of General Electric Health Care.