Friedrich Maass

German surgeon credited by one source (a 2021 Creighton University CME deck) as the first to advocate chest compression over ventilation alone in human patients, in 1891, after using external compressions to restart the hearts of two young patients. He matters to the vault as one of two competing named figures for the pivotal human-application milestone in the chest-compression lineage that predates Kouwenhoven's 1958 discovery by decades — a different, independent historical review instead credits Niehaus (1880, unsuccessful) and Koenig (1885, eight successful cases) for the same milestone. The disagreement between the two accounts is recorded, not resolved.

References

• claim-external-chest-compression-demonstrated-decades-before-kouwenhovens-1958-accident
• Captures: 2026-07-30-read-kouwenhoven-jude-knickerbocker-closed-chest-cardiac-massage