Professor Walter Kloeck’s post-graduate medical career started in 1978 with an intense interest in Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine, and he has devoted his life to raising the standard of emergency care both in South Africa and world-wide.

Walter co-founded the Resuscitation Council of Southern Africa in 1988 and was Chairman for over 20 years, co-founder of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR), which represents all major Resuscitation Councils worldwide, co-founder of the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa, and co-founder and Inaugural President of the College of Emergency Medicine of South Africa, a position he held for the past 9 years.

Walter has been a Reviewer and Editorial Board Member of “Resuscitation”, the official journal of the European Resuscitation Council over the past 12 years, and has attended and participated in almost every European Resuscitation Council Congress since its inception. In recognition of his sustained international contribution to resuscitation, he was awarded “Honorary Life Membership” of the European Resuscitation Council in 2008.

Having co-authored 80 international peer-reviewed publications and over 3,750 citations relating to resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care, Walter was nominated for the European Resuscitation Council’s international award “Fellow of the European Resuscitation Council (FERC)”, which was presented for the first time, since the inception of the European Resuscitation Council in 1990, at a gala ceremony during the “Resuscitation 2010 Congress” in Porto, Portugal on 4 December 2010. The Fellowship of the European Resuscitation Council award was introduced “to recognize its most prominent members who have demonstrated evidence of sustained leadership and contributions to resuscitation medicine through practice, research, education or care of patients”. Walter Kloeck is the first person in the southern hemisphere to have achieved both Honorary Life Membership and Fellowship of the European Resuscitation Council.

Walter has personally presented over 1,000 ACLS and over 600 PALS Courses on behalf of the American Heart Association. In November 2011, he was awarded International Fellowship of the American Heart Association (FAHA) in recognition of his contribution to resuscitation both nationally and internationally. In addition, the University of the Witwatersrand conferred the title Honorary Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine in lieu of over 25 years of dedicated service to the University of the Witwatersrand and to the community in general.