Ambu bag

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An ambu bag is a proprietary brand of a self-inflating bag-valve-mask (BVM) resuscitator, used to provide artificial ventilation to people who are having difficulty breathing or have stopped breathing altogether. The device is also used extensively in the operating room to ventilate an anesthetized patient in the minutes before an electric ventilator is attached.

The ambu bag consists of a flexible air chamber, about the size of an American football, attached to a face mask via a shutter valve. When the air chamber or "bag" is squeezed, the device forces air into the patient's lungs; when the bag is released, it self-inflates, drawing in ambient air.

The concept for the original ambu bag was developed in 1953 by the Danish engineer, Holger Hesse, and his partner, Danish anesthesialogist, Henning Ruben. In 1956, the world's first non-electric, self-inflating resuscitator was ready for production by their company, Ambu A/S, which still produces a wide range of single-patient and multi-use resuscitators.

http://vam.anest.ufl.edu/checkout/check-sirb.html A free interactive simulation of a BVM resucitator, a.k.a., a self-inflating manual resuscitator