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by Randy CassinghamRandy Cassingham's Honorary Unsubscribe Recognizes the Unknown, the Forgotten and the Obscure People who Had an Impact on Our Lives
W. Hunter Simpson
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After 17 years doing sales and marketing for IBM, Simpson was recruited by a little medical equipment company in Redmond, Wash., in 1966. It was called Physio-Control, and it had invented a machine called the direct current defibrillator -- used to restart a heart after a heart attack. Simpson pushed the machine not only into hospital emergency rooms, but later portable units could be used in the field, becoming available just as a new profession was starting up: paramedic. The "Lifepack" series of heart monitor/defibrillators made by Physio-Control are the gold standard for the field medic, and pretty much always have been. If it's not enough to be responsible for helping save countless lives, Simpson also wanted to make his employees' lives better: he is credited with creating the four-day work week, allowing his "team members" (as he called them) to work four 10-hour shifts and have a three-day weekend every week. When he retired in 1985, Simpson spent his time working for non-profits, raising money for various causes, especially the University of Washington; he served on 30 Boards of Directors and was a university Regent. He died January 20 at 79 from congestive heart failure.
[Editor's Note: Heart failure is not something that can be corrected by a defibrillator, so there's no "irony" involved here. More info.]
From This is True for 22 January 2006
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