Heimlich Maneuver Losing Ground

To continue with posts about altering long-held beliefs...

I've been reading recently about Henry Heimlich and his very famous maneuver. Heimlich is a Cincinnati native and is positively adored locally. I suppose that is why it has taken me so long to find out about his suspect medical career and the recent reversal of fortune for the Heimlich maneuver.

The tipping off point was an article in this month's Cincinnati Magazine called "A New Maneuver" by Pamela Mills Senn. Unfortunately it is not online, but I did find a scanned version of it for you all to take a look at. In it, she details the history of the Heimlich maneuver from its creation in 1974 to today. From 1985 to 2005, the American Red Cross advised that the Heimlich maneuver be used first on choking victims. Last year, they rather suddenly decided that back thrusts should be used first, instead of the Heimlich maneuver. Not a huge change, right? But man what a back-story.

I'm not going to outline the whole sordid tale, but here's the quick and dirty history. In 1974 Henry Heimlich describes a technique to dislodge obstructions in chocking victims using abdominal thrusts. He dubs the technique the Heimlich maneuver. Unfortunately he can't get the medical community to believe his "research" (mostly on dogs and friends of Heimlich), so he decides to go straight to the public. For the next few years he goes on talk shows and collects as much anecdotal evidence as possible to support his maneuver. He then makes a pest of himself to the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association until they finally adopt his maneuver; mostly because there was nothing better out there and they wanted to shut him up. Then for the next 20 years Henry Heimlich mounts a campaign to slander anyone who tries to mess with the Heimlich maneuver; at one point almost losing a doctor his license. During this time he also starts a dangerous side project infecting people with Malaria in a bizarre and completely unscientific attempt to "cure" AIDS. Finally his son, Peter Heimlich, begins collecting evidence and getting the word out about his father's dubious medical career. Unfortunateley his site is horribly designed but it is filled with good information.

And now we're up to the present.

But during all of this, the local Cincinnati media have remained amazingly silent. In fact numerous local big-wigs and corporations have actively promoted Heimlich and his shady, dangerous practices. I just can't believe it! We're talking about people's health and safety here. So I'm doing my part to make people aware of the Heimlich saga and hopefully get people to adopt the new Red Cross standards.