Henry Heimlich | |
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| Born | Henry Judah Heimlich (1920-02-03)February 3, 1920 Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. |
| Died | December 17, 2016(2016-12-17) (aged 96) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Education | Cornell University (BA,MD) |
| Years active | 1943–2016 |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | Arthur Murray (father-in-law) |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Physician andmedical researcher |
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Henry Judah Heimlich (February 3, 1920 – December 17, 2016) was an Americanthoracic surgeon and medical researcher. He is widely credited for the discovery of the Heimlich maneuver,[2] a technique ofabdominal thrusts for stopping choking,[3] first described in 1974.[4] He also invented theMicro Trach portable oxygen system for ambulatory patients[5] and the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve, or "flutter valve", which drains blood and air out of the chest cavity.[6]
Heimlich was born inWilmington, Delaware, the son of Mary (Epstein) and Philip Heimlich. His paternal grandparents wereHungarian Jewish immigrants, and his maternal grandparents wereRussian Jews.[7][8] He graduated fromNew Rochelle High School (N.Y.) in 1937 and fromCornell University (where he also served as drum major of theCornell Big Red Marching Band) with aBA in 1941. At the age of 23, he received hisM.D. fromWeill Cornell Medical College in 1943.[9]
After medical school, Heimlich served with theU.S. Navy in China duringWorld War II. In January 1945, as a member of the US Navy Reserve, Lieutenant (junior grade) Heimlich was assigned to Camp Four of the Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO) located at Xamba, Suiyuan Province in northern China, on the southern edge of theGobi Desert. Officially he was the chief medical officer responsible for the well-being of American and Chinese military personnel at this camp, but in actuality he also took care of a wide array of medical issues for civilians in the small town. Camp Four received news of the war's end in late August 1945. During this time, Heimlich claimed he developed an innovative treatment for victims oftrachoma, a previously incurable bacterial infection of the eyelids that was causing blindness throughout Asia and the Middle East. According to Heimlich, his approach – a mixture of an antibiotic ground into a base of shaving cream – proved effective, and it was used successfully on patients.[10]
In 1962, Heimlich invented the chest drainage flutter valve (also called the Heimlich valve),[11][12] and was granted a patent for the device in 1969.[13] He said his inspiration came from seeing a Chinese soldier die from a bullet wound to the chest duringWorld War II, a claim that was disputed by Frederick Webster, Heimlich's medical assistant in China.[14] The design of the valve allows air and blood to drain from the chest cavity in order to allow acollapsed lung to re-expand.[15] The invention was credited with saving the lives of hundreds of American soldiers in theVietnam War.[16]
| External audio | |
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 "The Man Behind the Maneuver",Radiolab, includes an interview with Dr. Heimlich, produced by Pat Walters |
On June 1, 1974, Heimlich first published his views about the first-aid maneuver that would bear his name in an informal article, "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary",[17] in the magazineEmergency Medicine.[18] On June 11, Arthur Snider, science columnist for theChicago Daily News wrote about Dr. Heimlich's findings, opening with the sentence, "A leading surgeon invites the public to try a method he has developed for forcing out food stuck in the windpipe of persons choking to death," in a story reprinted nationwide.[19]
On June 19, 1974, theSeattle Post-Intelligencer reported that retired restaurant owner Isaac Piha, who had read the Snider article in the Seattle paper, used the procedure to rescue a choking victim, Irene Bogachus, inBellevue, Washington, a story reprinted in other newspapers.[20][21] An editorial followed in the August 12 issue ofThe Journal of the American Medical Association, which was the first to refer to the procedure as "the Heimlich Maneuver."[21]
Heimlich formally described the technique in a pair of 1975 medical journal papers, published inThe Journal of the American Medical Association andThe Annals of Thoracic Surgery.[22][23]
From 1976 to 1985, the choking-rescue guidelines of theAmerican Heart Association and of theAmerican Red Cross taught rescuers to first perform a series of back blows to remove the foreign body airway obstruction. If back blows failed, then rescuers learned to proceed with the Heimlich maneuver (aka "abdominal thrusts"). After a July 1985 American Heart Association conference, back blows were removed from choking-rescue guidelines. From 1986 to 2005, the published guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross recommended only the Heimlich maneuver as the treatment for choking; theNational Institutes of Health still does apply it for conscious persons over one year of age,[24] as does theNational Safety Council.[25]
The 2005 choking-rescue guidelines published by the American Heart Association called the procedure "abdominal thrusts". The new guidelines stated that chest thrusts and back blows may also deal with choking effectively.[26]
In 2005, the American Red Cross "downgraded" the use of the Heimlich maneuver,[27] essentially returning to the pre-1986 guidelines. For conscious victims, the new guidelines (nicknamed "the five and five"), recommend first applying five back blows; if this method fails to remove the airway obstruction, rescuers are to then apply five abdominal thrusts. For unconscious victims, the new guidelines recommend chest thrusts, a method first recommended in a 1976 study by Charles Guildner,[28] with results duplicated in a study by Audun Langhelle in 2000.[29] The 2006 guidelines eliminated the phrase "Heimlich maneuver" and replaced it with "abdominal thrust".[30]
Allegations of case fraud have dogged Heimlich's promotion of abdominal thrusts as a treatment for drowning.[31] The 2005 drowning rescue guidelines of the American Heart Association[32] did not include citations of Heimlich's work and warned against using the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue as unproven and dangerous, due to its risk of vomiting leading toaspiration.[32]
In 2003, Heimlich's colleague Edward Patrick issued a press release portraying himself as the uncredited co-developer of the maneuver.[33][34] He stated, "I would like to get proper credit for what I've done ... but I'm not hyper about it."
Heimlich claimed to have used his namesake maneuver to rescue a choking victim for the first time on May 23, 2016, when he was age 96, reportedly saving the life of a fellow resident of hissenior living community, Patty Ris.[35][36] However, in 2003, he told the BBC that he had used it for the first time on a man choking in a restaurant.[12] His son, Peter M. Heimlich, said, "Both 'rescues' were bogus."[37]
Heimlich claimed his namesake treatment may have saved the lives of more than 50,000 people.[38] However, according to Michael Sayre in 2005, "Despite widespread education on the use of the Heimlich maneuver and other techniques for treatment of acute airway obstruction, the death rate remains stable."[39]
From the early 1980s, Heimlich advocatedmalariotherapy, the deliberate infection of a person with benignmalaria in order to treat ailments such as cancer,Lyme disease and (more recently[update]) HIV. As of 2009[update] the treatments were unsuccessful, and attracted criticism as both scientifically unsound and dangerous.[40] The United StatesFood and Drug Administration andCenters for Disease Control and Prevention have rejected malariotherapy and, along with health professionals and advocates for human rights, consider the practice "atrocious".[41][42] The Heimlich Institute, a subsidiary of Deaconess Associations of Cincinnati, conducted malariotherapy trials inEthiopia, though the Ethiopian Ministry of Health was unaware of the activity. Heimlich stated that his initial trials with seven subjects produced positive results, but refused to provide details.[40]
Studies in Africa, where both HIV and malaria occur commonly, indicate that malaria/HIV co-infection increasesviral load and that malaria could increase the rate of spread of HIV as well as accelerate disease progression.[43] Based on such studies,Paul Farmer described the idea of treating HIV with malaria by stating "it seems improbable. The places where malaria takes its biggest toll are precisely those in which HIV reaps its grim harvest".[44]
On June 4, 1951, Heimlich married Jane Murray, daughter ofballroom dancing entrepreneurArthur Murray.[11] Heimlich's wife, a freelance features writer who later became a proponent of controversial medical treatments likechelation therapy, wroteWhat Your Doctor Won't Tell You: The Complete Guide to the Latest in Alternative Medicine.[45] She also co-authored a book onhomeopathy with Maesimund B. Panos calledHomeopathic Medicine at Home.[46]
Heimlich and his wife had four children: Phil Heimlich, a formerCincinnati elected official and one-time conservative Christian radio talk-show host; investigative blogger Peter M. Heimlich; Janet Heimlich, a freelance writer and author ofBreaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment;[47] and Elisabeth Heimlich.[9][48][49] Peter maintains a website that describes what he and his wife, Karen M. Shulman, consider to be Dr. Heimlich's "wide-ranging, unseen 50-year history of fraud."[50] Peter has called his father "a spectacular con man and serial liar" and has claimed "the only thing my father ever invented was his own mythology."[51][52]
Heimlich was first cousin to Haskell Heimlick (né Heimlich) whose son wasAnson Williams, known for his portrayal of Warren "Potsie" Weber on the 1970s hit TV showHappy Days.[53]
Heimlich was avegetarian and in the early 2000s was on the advisory board of thePhysicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.[54][55]
Heimlich's memoir,Heimlich's Maneuvers: My Seventy Years of Lifesaving Innovation, was published in 2014 by Prometheus Books.[56]
A statement from his family said Heimlich died atThe Christ Hospital on December 17, 2016, after complications from a heart attack in his home inHyde Park, Cincinnati, on December 12. He was 96 years old.[citation needed]
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