Henry Heimlich - the man behind the lifesaving maneuver has died

Henry Heimlich, the doctor credited with saving thousands from choking to death with the Heimlich Maneuver, has passed away.

Photo Henry Heimlich via Wikipedia / Fair Use

Dr. Henry Heimlich perfected the method back in 1974 and thousands of lives have been saved in the process. Now the sad news has been reported by NPR that Dr. Heimlich has died at the age of 96 after suffering a massive heart attack. According to Bryan Reynolds, the spokesman for Episcopal Retirement Services, who run the retirement home where Heimlich has lived for years, the doctor passed away early on Saturday at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Reportedly Heimlich experienced complications from the heart attack he had at the retirement home on Monday.

Henry Heimlich, the surgeon who created life-saving Heimlich maneuver for choking victims, has died https://t.co/Rd19rotQQb pic.twitter.com/NKnAfjNIOS

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 17, 2016

Heimlich Maneuver – a life-saving tool

Since the good doctor invented the Heimlich Maneuver, it has become not only a life-saving tool, but also a part of modern day culture. Originally the method was known as “subdiaphragmatic pressure.” Heimlich told NPR in 1999 that this was the name he had assigned to the method when describing it in a medical journal in June 1974. However the method soon changed its name to the more popular version of Heimlich Maneuver, in honour of Dr. Heimlich. 

Reportedly the editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association called Heimlich to tell him they have found so many lives had been saved in under two months, they wanted to name the method after him.

Heimlich’s family said in a statement how sad they were to lose a man who is seen as a hero by many, adding that his legacy will extend beyond the famous live-saving maneuver. According to the statement, as a young surgeon, Heimlich was the first American to devise and perform a total organ replacement. He later invented a device that saved thousands of soldiers during the Vietnam War and the Heimlich Chest Drain Vale is still reportedly used worldwide for patients undergoing chest surgery. 

As reported by Radiolab, many celebrities have been saved by the Heimlich Maneuver, including Carrie Fisher, Halle Berry, President Ronald Reagan and New York Mayor Ed Koch.

Image by Evolution and evolvability / CC BY-SA 4.0

The life-saving method is relatively easy to perform. Heimlich once described the maneuver to NPR as follows:

"There are several positions. Now everybody knows where you stand behind the person, put your thumb inside of your fist just above the bellybutton — remember, below the chest. And you grasp your fist with your other hand and you press inward and upward. Now you repeat that until the object comes out."

"But it also can be done with a person lying down on their back. You kneel astride their thighs and put one of your hands on top of the other, and the heel of the bottom hand just above the bellybutton, and press your weight in. And that's how children have saved their parents. In addition, its widest use now is to save drowning victims." 

As Blasting News reported, Heimlich used his own method for the first time back in May this year, when he saved the life of an 87-year-old woman in his nursing home who was choking while eating a hamburger.