CINCINNATI (AP) — The Cincinnati surgeon who wrote the
book on saving choking victims through his namesake Heimlich maneuver
has now penned a new book: his memoir.
Dr. Henry Heimlich’s views
on how the maneuver should be used and on other innovations he has
created or proposed have put him at odds with some in the health field.
But he hopes his recently published memoir will preserve the technique
that has cleared obstructions from windpipes of choking victims around
the world for four decades and made his name a household word.
"I
know the maneuver saves lives, and I want it to be used and remembered,"
the 94-year-old retired chest surgeon told The Associated Press this
month. "I felt I had to have it down in print so the public will have
the correct information."
Much of his autobiography — "Heimlich’s
Maneuvers: My Seventy Years of Lifesaving Innovation" — focuses on the
maneuver, which involves thrusts to the abdomen that apply upward
pressure on the diaphragm to create an air flow forcing food or other
objects out of the windpipe.
Heimlich says thousands of deaths
reported annually from choking prompted him in 1972 to seek a solution.
Over the next two years, leading a team of researchers at Jewish
Hospital in Cincinnati, he successfully tested the technique by putting a
tube with a balloon at one end down an anesthetized dog’s airway until
it choked. He then used the maneuver to force the dog to expel the
obstruction.
"By 1974, I knew I needed to get the maneuver to the public as soon as possible to save lives,"
he said.
He
appeared on radio and television shows including "Good Morning America"
and "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" and started hearing from
people who had used the maneuver or been saved by it.
The maneuver
made headlines again this month. Clint Eastwood was attending a golf
event in Monterey, Calif., when the 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," Heimlich said.
Anne
Jutt of Mason, a Cincinnati suburb, said Heimlich will always be a hero
to her family. She used the maneuver last spring when her 6-year-old
son was choking on a cherry tomato.
"I was scared of hurting him,
but he was starting to get limp," she said. "I put everything I had into
it, and the tomato flew out like a bullet."
Heimlich says the
maneuver is very effective when used correctly, but he does not approve
of American Red Cross guidelines calling for back blows followed by
abdominal thrusts in choking cases that don’t involve infants or
unconscious victims. Red Cross officials say evidence shows using
multiple methods can be more effective, but Heimlich says blows can
drive obstructions deeper into a windpipe. The American Heart
Association backs abdominal thrusts.
Neither organization supports
Heimlich’s view that using the maneuver to remove water from the lungs
could save drowning victims. They recommend CPR.
"There is no
evidence that abdominal thrusts are effective for drowning victims,"
said Dr. Robert Neumar, chairman of the Emergency Cardiovascular Care
Committee of the American Heart Association.
Heimlich points with
pride to 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 has drawn 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 criticized
Heimlich for conducting studies involving malariotherapy on HIV patients
in China.
Heimlich mostly brushes off criticism about his work.
"I’ll
be the first to admit that a number of my ideas are controversial and
in some ways unorthodox," Heimlich said. "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."
Heimlich now lives in an
assisted-living facility but responds to emails and letters about his
work and makes guest appearances with the Heimlich Heroes program. The
program designed to teach young people how to use the Heimlich maneuver
allows him to still pursue his passion for saving lives.
"And I’m not done yet," he said with a grin.
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