Dr. Henry Heimlich, 1920-2016
December 18, 2016 11:04 AM   Subscribe

Dr. Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Maneuver that bears his name, has died.

Dr. Heimlich's invention of the chest-drainage flutter valve during the Vietnam war - since called the "Heimlich valve" - allows collapsed lungs to reexpand, reportedly saving thousands of soldiers' lives during the war and thousands more since.

We've seen several controversies surrounding Dr. Heimlich on the blue, including the claim that his Maneuver had actually invented by somebody else, and another about the extensive and dogged criticism from his son. Late in his career he became an advocate for Malariotherapy - deliberate infection with benign Malaria as an approach to curing HIV and Lyme disease - going as far as to test his theory on Chinese HIV patients, a medical trial that would have been illegal in the US.

He died on Saturday at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, from complications from a heart attack he'd suffered earlier in the week.

Earlier this year, he successfully used his own Maneuver for the first time.
posted by mhoye (28 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
"During World War II, as a newly minted surgeon accepting extra-hazardous duty with the US Naval Group in China, Dr. Heimlich developed an innovative treatment for trachoma victims by mixing sulfadiazine into a base of shaving cream. At the time, trachoma was still an incurable infection of the eyelids pervasive in Asia and the Middle East that led to blindness." He crushed sulfa tablets and mixed the power with shaving cream. Creative medicine!
posted by Carol Anne at 11:08 AM on December 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


Not necessarily the first time
posted by yeolcoatl at 11:18 AM on December 18, 2016


[repeatedly slams his stomach into the back of his chair]

.
posted by Samizdata at 11:19 AM on December 18, 2016 [3 favorites]


I was surprised that this was only invented in 1974. Last night I asked my RN mom what they did before, "slap people on the back?" Indeed it was. Slapping people on the back was the state of the art until the Alice Cooper Band broke up.
posted by rhizome at 11:31 AM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


"I have invented a maneuver"
posted by jonnyploy at 11:32 AM on December 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


.
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:34 AM on December 18, 2016


He has breathed his last.
posted by ardgedee at 11:35 AM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


There was also, for small children, "pick them up by their arms when they are coughing". This was remarkably effective for me, a kid who coughed a lot and has memories of being younger than grade school age and being picked up by my arms when I was young and coughing. I don't know if that applied to choking, though.

I do remember being taught quite young (like, maybe 3rd grade, which would be about 1976-77) about the Heimlich Maneuver. And continuing to be amazed across my life when I encountered people who didn't know about it. It was, like, seriously? The most basic thing to do, and I was taught it at 9 years old?

.
posted by hippybear at 12:03 PM on December 18, 2016


.
posted by radwolf76 at 12:12 PM on December 18, 2016


I think I first heard about it while watching THE JUSTICE LEAGUE SUPERFRIENDS on the Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid. I think it was Superman explaining it and using Batman as the stand-in victim.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:17 PM on December 18, 2016


I'm all choked up.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:24 PM on December 18, 2016 [5 favorites]


More about his bizarre HIV idea.
posted by gingerbeer at 12:34 PM on December 18, 2016


"I have invented a maneuver"

An early draft of this post referred to "his eponymous maneuver", which sounded like it could either be an Eddie Izzard indie tribute band or some sort of unauthorized fanfic sequel to Pullman's "His Dark Materials", neither of which felt like the right thing for an obituary.
posted by mhoye at 12:45 PM on December 18, 2016 [3 favorites]


I was surprised that this was only invented in 1974. Last night I asked my RN mom what they did before, "slap people on the back?" Indeed it was. Slapping people on the back was the state of the art until the Alice Cooper Band broke up.

The American Red Cross continues to recommend back blows (apparently the medical term of art for "slap people on the back") along with abdominal thrusts (the Heimlich Maneuver):
A review of the scientific literature suggested that back blows, abdominal thrusts and chest compressions are equally effective. Additionally, the use of more than one method can be more effective to dislodge an object. These findings are consistent with those of international resuscitation societies.

The Red Cross certainly isnโ€™t discounting the use of abdominal thrusts. But we include back blows, abdominal thrusts and chest compressions in our training because there is no clear scientific evidence to say that one technique is more effective than the others when treating a choking victim.
His experiments in China were deeply unethical and were performed without any kind of IRB supervision.
posted by zachlipton at 1:00 PM on December 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by oneironaut at 1:21 PM on December 18, 2016


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posted by Fizz at 1:42 PM on December 18, 2016


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posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 2:04 PM on December 18, 2016


๐Ÿ—ฃโ™’๏ธ๐ŸŒŸ
posted by Annika Cicada at 2:06 PM on December 18, 2016


. . . -------------- .
posted by Splunge at 2:42 PM on December 18, 2016


Without him, we wouldn't have
posted by rhizome at 3:30 PM on December 18, 2016


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posted by strixus at 3:43 PM on December 18, 2016


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posted by JoeXIII007 at 7:30 PM on December 18, 2016


Yep, back blows are still the first critical intervention that you are supposed to perform on a choking patient. Five back blows followed by five Heimlich abdominal thrusts. At least that's what they're currently training in Canadian first aid courses.

"Abdominal thrusts" being the non-infringing store-brand version of his maneuver.
posted by good in a vacuum at 8:02 PM on December 18, 2016


More of a gesture
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 8:36 PM on December 18, 2016


.

When I was in college, I was visiting my grandmother. She started choking. I did what I had seen on tv of the Heimlich and like magic it worked.
posted by ilovewinter at 10:12 PM on December 18, 2016


Same here. Saved a coworker from choking while a bunch of other people stood around gawking and getting excited. Thankfully I had been through so many mandatory CPR trainings by that point it was in muscle memory.

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posted by benzenedream at 10:40 PM on December 18, 2016


I once saw a guy receive the Heimlich Maneuver at a tailgate party. The words "volcano of phlegm" come to mind. It was spectacular. RIP Doctor H
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:09 AM on December 19, 2016


I took a big slice of steak from my wife's plate at a restaurant, and a single strand of fat that I didn't chew through caused the whole piece to go down my throat. I needed the Heimlich. When you're choking, it's very difficult to think clearly. I'm glad someone nearby knew it.
posted by Chuffy at 12:45 PM on December 19, 2016


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