Professor Pantridge

Frank Pantridge was a doctor at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, who became known as the Father of Emergency Medicine thanks to his invention of the first portable defibrillator. As a young man he served as an army medic in World War II and narrowly escaped death as a prisoner of war on the Siam Burma Railway. On returning to Belfast, Frank dedicated the rest of his life to helping others and became an expert in cardiac medicine.

Professor Pantridge’s innovation in creating a defibrillator, which could be taken to a patient in the case of an emergency, has saved countless lives across the world.