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September 1979 editorial published by trade magazine Emergency Medical Services

A news video published yesterday by Business Insider dealt another blow to my father's fraudulent 40-year campaign which he called, "back blows are death blows."

Here's a clip I made from the story by reporters Gene Kim and Jessica Orwig. (Click the link to watch the entire segment. I tried to post it here, but I couldn't get the embed code to work.)

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Via the June 18, 2013 Houston Chronicle: 

There has been an ongoing debate about the Heimlich maneuver and whether or not it is the most effective method. In 1985, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said, “Millions of Americans have been taught to treat persons who are choking with back blows, chest thrusts and abdominal thrusts. Now, they must be advised…and I ask for the participation of the Red Cross, the American Heart Association and public health authorities everywhere…that these methods are hazardous, even lethal.”

The American Heart Association and American Red Cross criticized Dr. Koop, but later followed suggested guidelines by only teaching the Heimlich. In 2005, the AHA and ARC changed their position by stating that “back blows, abdominal thrusts and chest compressions are equally effective” treatments for responding to a choking emergency.

Via a February 21, 2007 Creators Syndicate column by Lenore Skenazy: 

What most people don't realize, Dr. Heimlich's son, Peter Heimlich, said, is that "Koop was an old friend of my father's, and he did it as a buddy favor."

Lesley Hailwood and Nell (source)

Now a four-legged medical researcher named Nell (pictured above) has entered the debate to further challenge the late Dr. Koop's findings.

Via a report yesterday in the Liverpool Echo, here's how Lesley Hailwood described what happened after she started choking on a piece of chocolate:


After reading about this possible medical landmark, I contacted my friend, Charles W. Guildner MD of Everett, Washington.

Charles W. Guildner MD, July 2011; click here for contact his info

As Sidebar readers know, Dr. Guildner conducted a research study published in the September 1976 Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians (JACEP).

His results?

Chest thrusts were more effective than abdominal thrusts ("the Heimlich").

Per a 2007 Seattle Public Radio report, my father than tried to ruin him.

GUILDNER: "It's so repugnant to me the way Dr. Heimlich has bullied...He's a bully and he has bullied people into submission."

DR. HEIMLICH IS IN HIS 80'S AND LIVES IN OHIO. HE DID NOT RETURN CALLS FOR THIS STORY.

Long retired from medicine, Dr. Guildner is now a prominent fine-art photographer and teaches photography at the college level.

He's also a wry observer of the human condition, so who better to ask for a reaction comment about Nell's dramatic chest thrust rescue?

After I sent him the Liverpool article, here's what came back:

Yes, amazing isn't it? I have been training dogs to do this for many years. While in training the dogs act as though, yes, isn't it obvious that applying chest pressure is the logical thing to do?

Sometimes, dogs are a lot smarter than some people!

Sometimes even smarter than a Surgeon General.

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It took me months of e-mails and phone calls, but last Thursday I had a half-hour phone call with outgoing US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin about her office's policy on the best way to respond to a choking emergency.

Via the June 18, 2013 Houston Chronicle:

There has been an ongoing debate about the Heimlich maneuver and whether or not (the Heimlich maneuver) is the most effective method (for responding to a choking emergency). In 1985, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said, “Millions of Americans have been taught to treat persons who are choking with back blows, chest thrusts and abdominal thrusts. Now, they must be advised…and I ask for the participation of the Red Cross, the American Heart Association and public health authorities everywhere…that these methods are hazardous, even lethal.”

The American Heart Association and American Red Cross criticized Dr. Koop, but later followed suggested guidelines by only teaching the Heimlich. In 2005, the AHA and ARC changed their position by stating that “back blows, abdominal thrusts and chest compressions are equally effective” treatments for responding to a choking emergency.

The Red Cross stated that there is no clear scientific evidence to say that one technique is more effective than the others when treating a choking victim.

Per my June 10 letter to Dr. Benjamin, I've been trying to find out if the Office of the Surgeon General still stands behind Dr. Koop's outdated claims.

During our call I found Dr. Benjamin to be down to earth and easy to talk to. She explained that current governmental procedures are more complicated than in Koop's day -- no surprise there -- and that evaluating and processing new recommendations required months of reviews by committees.

But she did tell me that my inquiry "sparked out interest to start thinking about it...I certainly think it's an interesting topic that probably needs to be looked at."

Next week is her last week on the job, but she offered to share the information with the Acting Surgeon General, so we'll see where that goes.

Edward A. Patrick MD PhD (via the BMJ)

I also explained my concerns about the evidence on which Koop said he relied -- unpublished research by Dr. Edward A. Patrick, my father's shady 30-year crony whose one-of-a-kind, full-page obituary in the March 13, 2010 British Medical Journal sounds like a character from The Simpsons.

Two 1985 news reports about Koop's "pro-Heimlich" statement (Washington Post, Pittsburgh Press) identify Dr. Patrick as a professor at the University of Cincinnati. 

Dr. Benjamin asked me to send along that information, which I did in the following letter which raises obvious questions about Dr. Koop's due diligence.

Beyond that, as I told Creator's Syndicate columnist Lenore Skenazy in 2007:

"Koop was an old friend of my father's, and he did it as a buddy favor."

Note: I've revised this item a few times.  

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Also see my May 28, 2013 item, What's the U.S. Surgeon General's recommendation for treating choking victims? I can't get an answer, so my congressman Rob Woodall is trying to find out.







Note: After posting, I changed the headline of this item -- PMH

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Via a September 30, 1985 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release:

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop today endorsed the Heimlich manuever, not as the preferred, but as the only method that should be used for the treatment of choking from foreign body airway obstruction.

Dr. Koop also urged the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association to teach only the Heimlich Manuever in their first aid classes. Dr. Koop urged both organizations to withdraw from circulation manuals, posters and other materials that recommend treating choking victims with back slaps and blows to the chest.

..."The best rescue technique in any choking situation," Dr. Koop said, "is the Heimlich Manuever."

After about 20 years of teaching only the Heimlich maneuver for choking children and adults, the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association now recommended back slaps and chest thrusts as effective treatments.

So does the Surgeon General's office continue to stand by Dr. Koop's statment?

Since February, that's what I've been trying to find out.

Click here to view a string of inquiries I've sent to a string of employees in the office of Surgeon General Regina Benjamin.

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin (source)

I never received a reply so last month I wrote to Dr. Benjamin.

No reply from her either, so last week I asked my congressman, Rob Woodall (GA-7th District), to assist.


Here's his response (which included a copy of my inquiry to Dr. Benjamin):

From The Heimlich maneuver by Henry J. Heimlich MD & the late Edward A. Patrick MD, PhD, Postgraduate Medicine, 5/1/90

Isaac Asimov's Super Quiz is a syndicated King Features newspaper quiz column written by Ken Fisher. From the February 4, 2012 column: 

6. He has received credit as the inventor of abdominal thrusts.

Answer: Henry Heimlich

True, but what about....?

From Dr. Edward A.Patrick & Dr. Henry J. Heimlich Regarding the Heimlich maneuver, press release, The Patrick Institute, May 28, 2003 (via the Wayback Machine, emphasis from original):

A reporter* from the Cincinnati Enquirer walked up the driveway of my home on May 19, 2003...He asked why I did not get proper credit for the development of what now is called the Heimlich maneuver....I have always viewed that Dr. Heimlich and I worked together to develop what has become known as the Heimlich maneuver just as the Wright brothers worked together to develop the first flying machine.

...In 1985, Surgeon General Koop called me to indicate that he was giving a press release to the American people declaring that the back slap was lethal and the Heimlich maneuver would be the only treatment for choking. Dr. Heimlich and I had developed the Heimlich maneuver as the best treatment for choking – it "flew"!

* Robert Anglen (now at the Arizona Republic) can provide more details.



From Heimlich's Maneuver by Thomas Francis, Cleveland Scene, August 11, 2004:

On the day of Koop's announcement, Heimlich staged his own press conference in Cincinnati, while Patrick had his in Evansville, Indiana. Patrick fielded questions from reporters about his role in inventing the maneuver. "At 9:30, when the press conference was over, a reporter came up to me and said, 'I just talked to Dr. Heimlich, and he says he did it alone,'" says Patrick. He was stunned.

Asked to describe his role in inventing the maneuver, Patrick gives technical descriptions of two discoveries that were turning points, both of which he claims as his own. He has difficulty remembering Heimlich's contribution.

Nevertheless, there are no sour grapes. "I never asked him about that," says Patrick of Heimlich's solo claim to the maneuver. "I would like to get proper credit for what I've done, but I'm not hyper about it."

Still, he says that for the sake of accuracy, the technique ought to be called the Patrick-Heimlich maneuver.

From Dr. Patrick's full-page obituary in the British Medical Journal, March 13, 2010:

Patrick claimed that he was the co-developer of the Heimlich manoeuvre, which he referred to as the “Patrick-Heimlich manoeuvre.” For nearly 30 years, his career was intimately tied to the equally puzzling career of Henry Heimlich, once dubbed the “most famous physician in the world” for the life saving manoeuvre named after him.

Who might be able to shed more light on this mystery? Also from the BMJ obit:

He leaves three former wives, Patricia Roy, Susan Soudrette, and Joy Lake Patrick, and four children from his first marriage (one predeceased him) and two from his third.

My father, Cory Servaas MD, and Edward A. Patrick MD PhD (1987)

Ladies and gentleman, welcome to an international first aid throwdown.

The prize? Determining the most effective method to rescue a choking victim.

In this corner, courtesy of the September 5, 2011 Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's largest first aid organization, St John Ambulance:



In the opposing corner, from the website of Cincinnati's Heimlich Institute, my father and the late Edward A Patrick:

Drs. Edward A. Patrick & Henry J. Heimlich

All that's missing is a referee. How about the medical profession? 

Or how about the media? Presumably the press wants to provide the public with the best available first aid information. Also, controversy sells newspapers and this one's got that base covered, plus two world-famous doctors are in the mix.

If anyone wants to ask the various players what they have to say to support their positions, click the names for their contact information: St John Ambulance Australia, the Heimlich Institute, and the Koop Institute at Dartmouth College.

* What most people don't realize, Dr. Heimlich's son, Peter Heimlich, said, is that "Koop was an old friend of my father's, and he did it as a buddy favor." (source)