BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Forrest Bird, an inventor whose medical respirators breathed life into millions of patients around the world, has died. He was 94.
His wife, Pamela Bird, said he died Sunday of natural causes at their Idaho home in Sagle.
Forrest Bird is credited with creating the first low-cost, reliable medical respirators in the 1950s. In 1970, he created the "Babybird" respirator that significantly reduced infant mortality.
Bird started developing breathing aids as an officer with the Army Air Corps in World War II when aircraft started exceeding altitudes at which pilots could breathe unaided.
The family planned a private service on Monday and a public service on Saturday at the Bird Aviation Museum & Invention Center in Sagle.