Henry Heimlich

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Henry J. Heimlich (b. February 3, 1920), an American physician, is primarily known for the invention of the Heimlich Maneuver.

Heimlich was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in 1941, and received his M.D. from the Weill Cornell Medical College in 1943. He is best known for the choking treatment named after him. Heimlich first published his findings on the use of this maneuver in 1974, and within a week a newspaper reported it had been used to save a choking victim. In 2003, Heimlich's 30-year colleague, Edward A. Patrick MD PhD of Union, Kentucky, claimed to be the uncredited co-developer of the maneuver. Heimlich also helped promote a personal friend, the ventriloquist Paul Winchell, who claimed to have developed the first artificial heart.

From 1985-2005, the Heimlich maneuver was the only recommended treatment for choking in the published guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross. In 2006, both organizations drastically changed course and "downgraded" the use of the Heimlich maneuver. For conscious victims, the new guidelines recommend first applying backslaps; if this method failed to remove the airway obstruction, rescuers were to then apply abdominal thrusts. For unconscious victims, the new guidelines recommend chest thrusts, a method first recommended in a 1976 study by Charles Guildner MD whose results were duplicated in a year 2000 study by Audun Langhelle MD. The 2006 guidelines also eliminated the phrase "Heimlich maneuver" and replaced it with the more descriptive "abdominal thrust."

Heimlich's later work has been mired in controversy and widely discredited, in particular his claims that AIDS, cancer,^{[citation needed]} and Lyme disease^{[citation needed]} can be cured by giving malaria to patients already suffering from those other diseases. From the early 1990s through the present, he arranged human experiments in China and several African countries in which patients infected with HIV were injected with malarial blood.^{[citation needed]} These human experiments have been widely denounced as medical atrocities by bioethicists and U.S. federal agencies, including the CDC and FDA.^{[citation needed]}

Dr. Heimlich's promotion of the use of the Heimlich maneuver in cases of near-drowning has been dogged by allegations of case fraud, based on the research of his son, Peter M. Heimlich. The 2005 drowning rescue guidelines of the American Heart Association removed all citations or articles written by Dr. Heimlich and warn against the use of the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue as unproven and dangerous, since it may induce vomiting leading to aspiration.

It has been suggested Heimlich's dubious theories were given credence due to his reputation as the presumed inventor of the Heimlich maneuver.

Year 2005 choking rescue guidelines published by the American Heart Association ceased referring to "the Heimlich maneuver" and instead called the procedure "abdominal thrusts." The guideliness also state that chest thrusts and back blows may also be effective treatments for choking.

Heimlich is second cousin of actor and director Anson Williams.