Dr Henry Heimlich, inventor of the life-saving manoeuvre, dies aged 96
The acclaimed Jewish surgeon created the eponymous technique for choking victims.
The surgeon who created the life-saving Heimlich manoeuvre for choking victims has died aged 96.
Dr Henry Heimlich died at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati after suffering a heart attack earlier in the week, his son Phil said.
Dr Heimlich was director of surgery at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati in 1974 when he devised the treatment for choking victims that made his name a household word.
Rescuers using the procedure abruptly squeeze a victim’s abdomen, pushing in and above the navel with the fist to create a flow of air from the lungs.
That flow of air can then push objects out of the windpipe and prevent suffocation.
Dr Heimlich, originally from Wilmington, Delaware, estimated the manoeuvre had saved the lives of thousands of choking victims in the United States alone.
“My father was a great man who saved many lives,” said Phil Heimlich.
“He will be missed not only by his family but by all of humanity.”
Much of Dr Heimlich’s 2014 autobiography focuses on the manoeuvre, which involves thrusts to the abdomen that apply upward pressure on the diaphragm to create an air flow that forces food or other objects out of the windpipe.
The Cincinnati chest surgeon told the Associated Press in a February 2014 interview that thousands of deaths reported annually from choking prompted him in 1972 to seek a solution.
During the next two years, he led a team of researchers at Jewish Hospital.
He successfully tested the technique by putting a tube with a balloon at one end down an anaesthetised dog’s airway until it choked.
He then used the manoeuvre to force the dog to expel the obstruction.
The manoeuvre earned Dr Heimlich several awards and worldwide recognition. His name became a household word.
The manoeuvre was adopted by public health authorities, airlines and restaurant associations, and Dr Heimlich appeared on shows including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Today Show.
His views on how the manoeuvre should be used and on other innovations he created or proposed put him at odds with some in the health field.
He said his memoir was an effort to preserve his technique.
“I know the manoeuvre saves lives, and I want it to be used and remembered,” he told the AP.
“I felt I had to have it down in print so the public will have the correct information.”
The manoeuvre has continued to make headlines.
Clint Eastwood was attending a golf event in Monterey, California, in 2014 when the then-83-year-old actor saw the tournament director choking on a piece of cheese and successfully performed the technique.
“The best thing about it is that it allows anyone to save a life,” Dr Heimlich told the AP.
In 2016, Dr Heimlich himself was the hero, saving a woman choking on food at his senior living centre.
Dr Heimlich said the manoeuvre is very effective when used correctly, but he did not approve of American Red Cross guidelines calling for back blows followed by abdominal thrusts in choking cases that do not involve infants or unconscious victims.
Red Cross officials said evidence shows using multiple methods can be more effective, but Dr Heimlich said blows can drive obstructions deeper into a windpipe. The American Heart Association backs abdominal thrusts.
Neither organisation supports Dr Heimlich’s view that using the manoeuvre to remove water from the lungs could save drowning victims. They recommend CPR.
Dr Heimlich was proud of some of his other innovations, such as a chest drain valve credited by some with saving soldiers and civilians during the Vietnam War.
But he drew sharp criticism for his theory that injecting patients with a curable form of malaria could trigger immunity in patients with the HIV virus that causes Aids.
Medical experts have said injecting patients with malaria would be dangerous and have criticised Dr Heimlich for conducting studies involving malariotherapy on HIV patients in China.
Dr Heimlich mostly brushed off critics.
“I’ll be the first to admit that a number of my ideas are controversial and in some ways unorthodox,” Dr Heimlich told the AP.
“But I have enough guts to know that when I am right, it will come about as the thing to do, even if others do the wrong thing for a time.”
One of his most vocal critics has been his son, Peter Heimlich.
The younger Heimlich split with his father years ago over a personal rift.
He initially circulated anonymous criticisms of his father before openly speaking out against him online and in media interviews.
Peter Heimlich has called many of his father’s theories dangerous and spent years challenging many of his claims and trying to discredit them.
The elder Heimlich maintained that his relationship with his son was a family matter and refused to comment on it to the media.
The elder Heimlich attended Cornell University undergraduate and medical schools and interned at Boston City Hospital.
During the Second World War, the US navy sent him to north-west China in 1942 to treat Chinese and American forces behind Japanese lines in the Gobi Desert.
Beginning in the 1950s, he held staff surgeon positions at New York’s Metropolitan Hospital and Montefiore Hospital and Medical Centre.
He was later an attending surgeon on the staffs at Jewish and Deaconess hospitals in Cincinnati and a researcher at his non-profit Heimlich Institute.
Dr Heimlich’s wife Jane, daughter of the late dance teacher Arthur Murray, died in November 2012.
He is survived by two sons and two daughters.
Phil Heimlich said a private family service and burial is planned soon.
The family hopes to arrange a public memorial, he added, that will give his father’s friends and admirers a chance to pay their respects.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
