Emergency Crash Cart
date: label: date made
content: About 1969
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Prototype "Wheeled Emergency Care Vehicle" was invented by Dr. Joel Nobel. Patented in 1969, it is also referred to as a Medical Emergency Crash Cart and affectionately called MAX by ECRI employees. The emergency Crash Cart was designed to carry instruments and other medical supplies for cardio-pulminary resuscitation. The top of the cart formed a support litter for the patient.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The frame of the crash cart is stainless steel and some type of particle board. It has five drawers with locks for supplies. The cart is outfitted with medical equipment and pharmaceuticals used in the late 1960's and 1970's, including the following: electrocardiograph, electroencephalograph, cardioscope, power supply, syringes, needles and catheters, respirator, oxygen tanks, pacemaker, defibrillator, IV fluids, vials and ampoules of drugs used in emergency situations. Pharmaceuticals include Dilatin, Adrenalin, Quinidyne, Isuprel, Scopolamine, Lidocaine, Aramine, Levophed, Digoxin, Paraldehype and Benadryl.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The crash cart was first conceived in the mid-1960's by Dr. Joel J. Nobel (b. 1934), while an intern at Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nobel applied for a patent in October 1966 which was issued 18 February 1969. Approximately 600 crash carts were produced. The chassis was made Buxco a Pennsylvania company. the remaining portion of the cart was produced by Corbin-Farmsworth a former division of Smith Kline Instruments Incorporated.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The concept of emergency carts was not new in the 1960's. health care personnel recognized the need to quickly bring life-saving equip[ment to a patient in distress. Several unrelated groups cobbled emergency crash units together, but it was Nobel's idea of brining medical equipment and pharmaceuticals together in a single cart which paved the way for greater efficiency and saved lives. MAX is an iconic representation of an important period in the history of cardiology and cardiac surgery.
label: Description
content: Prototype of the Medical Emergency Crash Cart (aka MAX) invented by Dr. Joel Judovich Nobel (1934-2014), anesthesiologist, patient safety advocate, and founder and president of the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) in Philadelphia.
label: Description
content: Ref: Joel J. Nobel, “Wheeled Emergency Care Vehicle,” U.S. Patent 3,428,383 (Feb. 18, 1969), assigned to Graduate Pain Research Foundation.
label: Description
content: “Max the Lifesaver,” Life (Jan. 28, 1966).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: ECRI Institute
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2011.0167.01.01
label: accession number
content: 2011.0167
label: patent number
content: 3,428,383
label: catalog number
content: 2011.0167.01.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: crash cart
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 67 in x 27 in x 55 in; 170.18 cm x 68.58 cm x 139.7 cm