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THE PROFILE OF FORREST M BIRD, M.D., PhD., ScD.
Born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, Forrest M Bird learned to fly a plane with the encouragement of his father, a World War I pilot. By the age of fourteen in 1935, young Forrest was soloed by his father in his 1928 Waco Biplane. In 1941, with extensive Aviation qualifications, he was called to active duty as a Technical Air Training Officer in the US Army Air Corps. During World War II, as a highly qualified pilot, Forrest transitioned almost every aircraft the Armed Services had in inventory. He was one of the earliest military Jet as well as Helicopter pilots.
His Aeronautical knowledge coupled with a later medical education, permitted Dr. Bird, with dual qualifications, to effectively enter into conceptual aeromedical technology. Over the years, Dr. Bird developed in-flight Aircrew Breathing Regulators and anti “g” devices for pilots flying the latest “state of the art” military and civil Aircraft. Following Dr. Bird’s military accomplishments he became interested in developing pneumatically servoed Cardiopulmonary Support Systems.
Beyond Aviation circles, Dr. Bird is well known by most Clinicians for the first universal mass produced medical respirator known as the Bird Mark 7® Respirator, which still remains in world wide service. Dr. Bird’s BABYbird®, first introduced in 1969, reduced mortality in Neonates with Respiratory Distress Syndromes (IRDS) from some 70% to less than 10% within several years. During the 1980s Dr. Bird perfected Intrapulmonary Percussive Ventilation (IPV®) which has proven to be a major advance in mechanical Cardiopulmonary Care.
In 1995 Dr. Bird was inducted into the “US Inventors Hall of Fame” for his developments in “fluid Dynamics and the patented BABYbird®. He is a past president of the Civil Aviation Medical Association (CAMA). Dr. Bird is still an active highly qualified FAA certificated Flight Instructor Pilot and Aeronautical Engineer. He remains an ardent Lecturer as well as Educator, with deep Research and Development commitments in Aeromedicine.
| FORREST M BIRD, M.D., PhD. ScD. |