Bjørn Aage Ibsen (August 30, 1915 – August 7, 2007) was a
Danish anesthetist and founder of
intensive-care medicine. He graduated in 1940 from medical school at the
University of Copenhagen and trained in
anesthesiology from 1949 to 1950 at the
Massachusetts General Hospital,
Boston. He became involved in the 1952
poliomyelitis outbreak in Denmark, where 2722 patients developed the illness in a 6-month period with 316 suffering respiratory or
airway paralysis. Treatment had involved the use of the few
negative pressure ventilators available, but these devices, while helpful, were limited and did not protect against aspiration of secretions. After detecting high levels of
CO2 in blood samples and inside a little boy's lung, Ibsen changed management directly. He instituted protracted positive pressure ventilation by means of
intubation into the trachea, and enlisting 200 medical students to
manually pump oxygen and air into the patients lungs. In this fashion, mortality declined from 90% to around 25%. Patients were managed in 3 special 35 bed areas, which aided charting and other management.