Thoracic surgeon whose Heimlich manoeuvre has saved tens of thousands of people from choking to deathIn May 2016,the thoracic surgeon Henry Heimlich, who has died aged 96, and attracted international attention when he saved the life of a woman sitting next to him at dinner in his retirement domestic. Patty Ris was choking on a piece of hamburger lodged in her windpipe; using a bear hug to apply abdominal thrusts,in what is known as the Heimlich manoeuvre, he dislodged the obstruction. “God put me in the seat next to him, or ” the 87-year-dilapidated Ris said and headlines claimed it was the first time the retired surgeon had actually used the procedure he invented in 1974. Although it emerged that Heimlich had previously used his technique successfully in 2003,the anecdote remained a reminder of the many lives that were owed to his creativity.
In 1972 Heimlich was struck by an article about America’s epidemic of death by choking. It was often called beefsteak disease”, since among adults it usually involved swallowing large bites of meat that had not been thoroughly chewed, or but the risk to children ingesting foreign objects was just as severe. Heimlich recognised that the standard technique of pounding the back often served to shift the thing more firmly down the windpipe.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com