Red Cross Blogs

Gunther von Hagens gets the first aid bug

By Mark Cox
July 24, 2009 at 4:32 pm

So, your starter for ten. What links:

1. The British Red Cross.
2. A fully-grown plastinated giraffe sliced in half from nose to genitalia.
3. An eccentric German doctor in a black hat.

The answer, which you no doubt have already guessed, is the latest Bodyworlds exhibition by Dr Gunther von Hagens, currently showing at the O2 Bubble in London (which now has a 2 for 1 offer available). The British Red Cross is the main charity partner for the venture.

But why, you may ask, is our esteemed organisation getting involved with such a controversial fedora fancier and giraffe-botherer as Dr von Hagens? The answer, rather prosaically, lies in first aid awareness. Like the Red Cross, Gunther believes that everyone should learn how to save a life, and his current exhibition is peppered with huge Red Cross stands providing a range of handy first aid tips.

I went to the exhibition earlier this week and was very encouraged to see just how popular the stands were. I’m convinced there really is a big appetite for learning life-saving skills – it’s just that most people are just too busy or distracted to make the effort.

The genius of the Body Worlds exhibition is that it has enabled the Red Cross to reach thousands of new people while they’re just out having a good time. And the good doctor has even created a new CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) couple exhibit exclusively for the Red Cross, which features one man giving chest compressions to another.

PS. Incidentally, I spent a full day with Dr Gunther last year at his Plastinarium in East Germany and have to report that – despite showing distinct leanings towards eccentricity – he seemed a thoroughly decent and even humorous chap.

(My top memory is sitting beside him in a restaurant while he spent 15 minutes scrupulously dissecting the fish on his plate, cutting the skin away and separating each bone from the flesh. Everyone else had finished their meal and he hadn’t even started. Only Gunther could make eating a halibut look like a surgical procedure…)

Image 1 © Lloyd Sturdy (BRC)
Image 2 © Gunther Von Hagens

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Tags: CAR, cpr, DEC, First aid, first aid tips, Germany, life-saving skills, london, People, red cross, resuscitation, UK, UN, USA, war

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm and is filed under First aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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