with a number of injuries caused by improper technique, resulted in the procedure being removed from CPR training. History James E. Pennington and Bernard Lown at Harvard University are credited with formalizing this technique in the medical literature. They published their report in the New England Journal of Medicine in the early 1970s. Richard S. Crampton and George Craddock, at the University of Virginia helped to promote the paramedic use of chest thump through a curious accident. In 1970, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad (VA) was transporting a patient with an unstable cardiac rhythm in what was then called a Mobile Coronary Care Unit. When the vehicle inadvertently hit a speed bump in a shopping center parking lot, the patient's normal heart rhythm was restored. Further research confirmed that chest thumping patients with life-threatening arrhythmias could save lives. Fist pacing Percussion pacing or fist pacing was proposed as a method of delivering mechanical pacing to someone in cardiac arrest. There is little evidence to support its use. In 1920, German physician Eduard Schott originally described percussion pacing, and a 2007 BJA article describes good benefit to this technique. References Cardiac procedures