The Sidebar

Part I, February 3, 2014: Prometheus Books is poised to (literally) disappear my father's closest career colleague -- the claimed co-developer of the Heimlich maneuver -- from his forthcoming autobiography

Part II, February 11, 2014: Former wife of "Patrick Maneuver" doc calls out my father for disappearing her ex from "Heimlich's Maneuvers," published today by Prometheus Books

The HARP group (circa 1975): Neil A. Armstrong, University of Cincinnati; Henry J. Heimlich, MD, Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati; Edward A. Patrick MD, PhD, Purdue University. Standing: George Rieveschl, Jr., PhD, ScD, University of Cincinnati (source)

N. Jeffrey Blankenship of Florence, KY, attorney and friend of the late Dr. Edward A. Patrick, has written a letter of concern to Jonathan Kurtz, president of Prometheus Books, the company that recently published my father's memoir, Heimlich's Maneuvers.

Here's the focus of Blankenship's letter, which is viewable below. (Click here to download a copy.)

I understand that, for some reason, you have chosen to publish memoirs by Dr. Henry Heimlich, which completely omits any reference to one of the critical partners of his development of research throughout his career, Dr. Edward Patrick, Ph.D.

...Dr. Ed Patrick, now says he helped invent the [Heimlich Maneuver], which he calls “Patrick-Heimlich Maneuver.”  Although Dr. Heimlich denied those claims, I remember meeting with Dr. Patrick myself and, although I am not an engineer, Dr. Patrick explained to me the engineering basis which he had provided to Dr. Heimlich for the maneuver.

...I am sure you can see that you should at least explore this information and allocate to Dr. Patrick some credit for his contribution to a number of Dr. Heimlich’s accomplishments. Dr. Patrick was an integral member of the Institute of Science of Medicine and Engineering (based at the University of Cincinnati), commonly known as the HARP group. HARP was an acronym for Heimlich, (Neil) Armstrong, (George) Reivershel [sic], and (Ed) Patrick, M.D., Ph.D.

As of recently, Neil Armstrong was the last of the three remaining partners of Dr. Heimlich to die...(It) is interesting to me that Dr. Heimlich chooses to publish these memoirs after all of the partners who could contribute to this publication have pre-deceased him.

Here's the version of the HARP group photo -- oops, make that "HAR" -- from my father's book:





This item has been slightly revised.

source

Via Trotsky Vanishes from The Museum of Hoaxes website:

Leon Trotsky was a leader of the Russian October Revolution, second in command to Lenin. During the 1920s he opposed the policies of Stalin. As a consequence, he was deported and eventually assassinated.

When historian David King visited Moscow in 1970, he discovered that the Soviets had made a systematic attempt to purge all mention of Trotsky -- as well as any other person who had fallen out of political favor -- from historical records. This included removing Trotsky's image from photographs.

Comrades! The spirit of Uncle Joe lives on in the dacha of Amherst, NY.

That's the home of Prometheus Books, which on February 11 is scheduled to publish my father's autobiography.

Ray Hyman, Paul Kurtz, James Randi, and Ken Frazier, July 2010, Las Vegas, after their session on the history of the modern skeptical movement (source).

Prometheus was founded by Paul Kurtz, who, according to his lengthy October 23, 2012 New York Times obituary, was "a philosopher whose advocacy of reason ahead of faith helped define contemporary secular humanism...Professor Kurtz founded the Center for Inquiry, which promotes evidence-based reasoning and opposes organized religion, and the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (known as Csicop), which is dedicated to debunking pseudosciences."

Just a little more than a year after his death, the company founded by this prominent advocate of reason and intellect is publishing the memoirs of Henry J. Heimlich, arguably one of the late 20th century's Masters of Woo.

A celebrity doctor who built the first part of his career by falsely claiming to have invented a surgical procedure, my father was fired from his last hospital gig in 1977 and never again had a practice. For decades, his Heimlich Institute funded and supervised violative "research" in which US and foreign nationals were infected with malaria, resulting in investigations by the CDC, the FDA, the Dept. of Justice, and UCLA. And in order to promote his baseless claims that "the Heimlich" was effective to revive near-drowning victims, he reportedly published faked case reports. The result? Dozens of poor outcome cases, including kids.

Not far out enough for you, comrades?

From the Heimlich Institute's Caring World newsletter, let's take a ride on Sputnik:


If  Dr. Kurtz knew his imprint would be on my father's book, you know what I think he'd do?

Send someone to Siberia.

Which is exactly what my father's book has done with Edward A. Patrick MD PhD, his closest career colleague.

As I first reported in October, here's what Lisa Michalski, Senior Publicist at Prometheus, wrote me when I asked how Dr. Patrick was portrayed in the book:

There is no mention of Edward A. Patrick.

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

Much of Edward A Patrick’s life is shrouded in mystery, his actual accomplishments clouded by his tendency to bend and invent the facts of his life. 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. The two men worked tirelessly together, promoting the manoeuvre and later working on a cure for AIDS—a “cure” that was denounced by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

Via Heimlich Maneuver Endorsed by Cristine Russell, Washington Post, October 2, 1985:

Yesterday, as the U.S. surgeon general, Koop endorsed the life-saving Heimlich Maneuver "as the only method that should be used for the treatment of choking from foreign body airway obstruction" and prodded the American Red Cross and American Heart Association to move more quickly in adopting it exclusively.

...Koop said in an interview that he felt the need to act more quickly after receiving letters from (Dr. Henry) Heimlich and University of Cincinnati professor Edward A. Patrick, as well as his knowledge of the value of the procedure. "I felt that I couldn't stand around and wait."

Patrick, who has performed research showing that the back slap can drive a foreign object downward, complained to Koop that the "lives of many Americans are endangered as the result of Red Cross first aid instruction" and said "it is urgent that you inform the public through the media of the back slap danger."

Here are two of the articles Dr. Patrick co-authored with Dr. Zhivago:

From Using the Heimlich Maneuver to Save Near Drowning Victims by Henry J. Heimlich MD and Edward A. Patrick, MD PhD, Postgraduate Medicine, August, 1988.

Via the Heimlich Institute's site:


Per a 1994 30-page report, Dr. Patrick partnered with my father to present their arguments for the Heimlich for drowning to a committee convened by the Institute of Medicine.

From a 1986 Saturday Evening Post article about my father and Dr. Patrick overseeing the installation of a Heimlich Micro-Trach oxygen delivery system

Via Thomas Francis's November 2005 Radar Magazine article:

"I would like to get proper credit for what I've done," Patrick told me. "But I'm not hyper about it."

Patrick's ex-wife Joy tells a different story: "Whenever my kids would say 'Heimlich maneuver,' he would correct them and say, 'Patrick maneuver.'"

Now pour yourself some tea from the samovar and get ready for some major собачья чушь.

Via a September 11, 2012 blog item by Laura Laugle, who archived the Henry J. Heimlich Collection at the University of Cincinnati (which my wife Karen and I have visited):

During his tenure with the University, (astronaut Neil) Armstrong took on a project with a number of local medical professionals including Dr. (Henry) Heimlich, Dr. (George) Rieveschl and Dr. (Edward) Patrick. The HARP Group as they were called set out to design an artificial oxygenator for the treatment of chronic lung diseases. Pumps used in heart-lung machines at the time caused severe hemolysis or rupturing of red blood cells and were often unsafe to use for more than a few hours. The result of the HARP Group’s efforts was the Apollo Double Diaphragm Pump for artificial heart-lung systems, a modified version of a pump used by NASA to circulate temperature regulating fluid in space suits.

My father told me he came up with the name HARP, an acronym made of the first initials of the last names of the four scientists.

source

Here's the photo that accompanied Laura's item:

Neil Armstrong, George Rieveschl PhD, Henry J. Heimlich MD, Edward A. Patrick MD PhD

About a week ago I asked Lisa at Prometheus if the photo was going to be in my father's book.

Here's what she sent me:

By cropping Dr. Patrick out of the photo, it would appear that, in his revisionist history, Commissar Heimlich has re-named the group HAR.

I wanted to find out who censored it, so I called Kevin Grace, whose name is in the cutline. A senior librarian and archivist at the University of Cincinnati, he told me he wouldn't have provided a cropped version of the photo.

Next I sent these questions to Lisa @ Prometheus:

1) Is Prometheus responsible for cropping Dr. Patrick out of the photo? If not, who was?
 
2) Before today, was Prometheus aware that the photo in my father's book had cropped out Dr. Patrick? If so, approximately when did Prometheus become aware of the fact?

3) In the cut line of the cropped photo that's going to be in the book, is there a reason why Dr. Rieveschl isn't identified?

Here's what came back:

Dear Peter,

I realize you have a personal interest in this book, an ongoing investigation into the details of your father’s career, and maintain a blog relevant to both, but unfortunately, our staff does not have the time or resources to respond to your detailed queries about the content of Heimlich’s Maneuvers or the steps taken to produce it. For example, tracking down the chronology by which any one interior photo was cropped and captioned is not a quick question but requires several different departments to confer, research, and take time away from their deadline-oriented agenda. The book is finished, printed, and will be in the marketplace in a few weeks. If you have further questions about the book and its contents, you should take them to Henry Heimlich or Janet Heimlich.

Thank you for your understanding.

Jill Maxick

Vice President of Marketing; Director of Publicity

Prometheus Books / Pyr /Seventh Street Books™ / Humanity Books

Let it never be said that I would ever knowingly interfere with anyone's deadline-oriented agenda, but why refer me to my sister Janet, whose book, Breaking Their Will, was published by Prometheus a couple years ago?

From the acknowledgement page of my father's memoir:


Based on Ms. Maxick's suggestion, I'll follow-up and try to find out who was responsible for cropping Dr. Patrick out of the photo.

Before I say das vedanya, the Politburo has instructed me to inform readers that Prometheus Books is now run by Paul Kurtz's son, Jonathan, pictured here with his father in a November 2003 photo:

Prometheus Books executives: Steven Mitchell, the late Dr. Paul Kurtz, Lynette Nisbet, Jonathan Kurtz

Based on the publication of my father's book, the company's editorial policies are apparently no longer bound by Dr. Kurtz's reactionary philosophy of "reason," "intellect," "skeptical inquiry," and "debunking pseudoscience."

In that spirit, comrades, let us put the past behind us as we move forward to a brighter and more deadline-oriented future!


This item has been slightly revised.

Also see my May 6, 2013 investigations request to UCLA.

UPDATE: Son of Henry Heimlich questions UCLA researchers’ involvement in his father’s controversial malariotherapy study by Naheed Rajwani and Alessandra Daskalakis, The Daily Bruin, May 6, 2013

I reported about this last year, but a new radio report about my father's career gives me an excuse for a re-visit.

The Man Behind the Maneuver, produced and reported by Pat Walters, aired last week on a program called Radiolab.

Via their website:


You want boundary-blurring? Read on....

From An Illustrated History of Heimlich, a graphic timeline that accompanied the Radiolab story:

Graphic by Larry Buchanan

Here's an audio snip from the show describing how my father "laid the dog down on the operating table and then he jams this piece of meat down the dog's throat":

Four beagles, weighing 17 kg (38 lb) each, were anesthetized with thiamylal (Surital) sodium given intravenously. A cuffed, No. 32 endotracheal tube, the lumen plugged by a rubber stopper, was inserted under direct vision through the mouth into the larynx. The cuff was distended with 3 to 4 ml of air, causing total obstruction of the trachea, simulating a bolus of food caught in the human larynx. The animal immediately went into respiratory distress, as evidenced by spasmodic paradoxical respiratory movements of the chest and diaphragm.

...Subsequently, I pressed the palm of my hand deeply and firmly upward into the abdomen of the animal a short distance below the rib cage, thereby pushing against the diaphragm. The endotracheal tube (bolus) popped out of the trachea. After several labored respirations, the dog resumed breathing. The experiment was repeated more than 20 times on each animal with the same result. The clinical situation was then simulated by inserting a bolus of raw hamburger into the dog's larynx until the respiratory passage was totally occluded. The abdominal pressure maneuver was repeated and, in each instance, after one or two compressions, the bolus was ejected from the larynx and normal respiratory exchange was established.

Incidentally, there's no mention of string being tied to the meat and it's unclear how a piece of string could be tied to "a bolus of raw hamburger."

What makes this more interesting is that, according to the LA Weekly, since 1986 my father's been on the medical advisory board of the Washington, DC-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and every couple of years PCRM presents the Henry J. Heimlich Award for Innovative Medicine.

Via an article last year in the Wayne State University student newspaper:

Dr. John Pippin, director of academic affairs for PCRM, said the group’s interest is scientifically and medically based.

 ...PCRM is opposed to and seeks to ban the use of animals in medical research in all forms, Pippin said, because such research is “a fraud.”

Since his 1974 research using the beagles, my father has claimed to have seen the errors of his ways and has represented himself as an advocate against the use of animals in medical research.

For example, from a May 1990 speech he gave at the Animal Experimentation Alternatives Conference in Tel Aviv:

This useless sacrificial research can be stopped if we take time, and use the press, which is very friendly.

However, only a couple of years ago, my father's Heimlich Institute donated $615,000 to the University of Cincinnati for cancer research using mice. As I reported, PCRM then quietly scrubbed the Heimlich Institute from their list of approved charities.

Here's a good question that animal activists may wish to ask Dr. Pippin and PCRM founder/president Neal Barnard MD.

Why is my father still on their organization's board?

Source (screenshot from today)

A request to Sidebar readers: Over the years, I've sent a number of courteous inquiries to Drs. Pippin and Barnard and PCRM's media representatives, but I've never received a single reply. If anyone wishes to ask PCRM for an explanation why my father is still on their board, I'd welcome copies of any correspondence.

Click here for PCRM's contact information. Click here for mine.


This item has been slightly revised.

The University of Cincinnati News Record just published Questionable Study has UC Ties by reporter Benjamin Goldschmidt. 

Here's the takeaway:

On Nov. 19, the University of Cincinnati received one of five inquiry letters sent to organizations that could be linked to an offshore, potentially controversial experiment.

Peter Heimlich, son of Henry Heimlich - famous for the Heimlich Maneuver choking rescue treatment - sent the inquiry letters in hopes of obtaining more information on the experiment, which was performed on children in Barbados, according to a study published in the West Indian Medical Journal in 2005.

...The study tested whether or not a modified version of the Heimlich Maneuver could stop an acute asthma attack....The 67 children who participated were between the ages of six and 16.

Charles H. Pierce, MSc, MD, PhD, FCP, CPI

UC received one of the inquiry letters because Charles Pierce, adjunct professor of psychiatry at UC, was involved with applying for loans (sic) for the study....

Barbados Minister of Health Donville Inniss, MP

Other organizations and individuals also received the letters, including Rotary International, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Donville Inniss, the minister of health in Barbados.

Records show that the study was funded by the Rotary Club of Cincinnati and the Heimlich Institute. (More about that in a future item.)

Dr. Anne St. John and HRH Prince Harry (January 2010)

...Pierce and Anne St. John, a doctor in Barbados who was involved in the study, claim (an Institutional Review Board) approved the project.

...“A couple weeks ago, I sent inquiries to Queen Elizabeth Hospital and to Donville Inniss, the Barbados Minister of Health, asking for the name of the IRB and when the (Ministry's) Ethics Committee approved the study,” Peter Heimlich said. “I haven't received any answers.”

More from the News Record:

(Dr. Pierce) said the modified version of the Heimlich Maneuver is harmless, and is meant to empty the lungs and give relief to an asthma patient and could prevent further asthma attacks.

Presumably Dr. St. John, the study's lead investigator, can clarify what sort of "modified version of the Heimlich maneuver" was performed on the child test subjects.

But here's what medical experts have said about the version of the treatment that my father has been hyping since at least 1996. (Click here for a Heimlich Institute press release.)

Loren Greenway, PhD

From a 2005 newsweekly article by Utah reporter Shane Johnson.

And in this clip from a November 17, 2006 ABC7 Chicago I-Team report by Chuck Goudie:

 The Heimlich maneuver will stop an asthma attack," (says Dr. Henry) Heimlich.

Heimlich also urges the maneuver be used on cystic fibrosis victims, all claims that have stunned the medical community and major medical organizations, which warn that the use of the Heimlich maneuver in those situations could be fatal.

The American Lung Association asked Chicago respiratory expert Dr. John Shannon to speak with us.

"It shouldn't be used at all in asthma or in cystic fibrosis or any other chronic inflamation disorder in the lung passages," said Dr. John Shannon, Stroger Cook County Hospital.

"There is a good possibility of making a person with asthma substantially worse."

To my knowledge, the only article about the treatment published in a medical magazine is Some Experts Are Skeptical About Reports That the Heimlich Maneuver Relieves Acute Asthma Attacks by Carolyn Gard from the February 1997 issue of Modern Medicine.

Click here to read the article, but regarding the Barbados study, this quote raises some reasonable questions:

(Asthma specialist Homer Boushey, MD says that he is) skeptical of studies that have not undergone peer review. Furthermore, he adds, the technique should first be tested on animals rather than humans.

Did the Barbados study undergo peer review? If so, by whom?

Has the "modified Heimlich for asthma" ever been tested on animals?

And has it ever been tested on adult subjects or just on the children in Barbados?

My father (seated) inspects lymphocytes involved in developing new cellular therapy for transplant patients. Deaconess Assns. Foundation and the Heimlich Institute donated $115,000 to the Hoxworth Blood Center to complete a $615,000 award for the study. From left are Hoxworth researchers Jose Cancelas, MD, Ph.D.; Tom Leemhuis, Ph.D.; and Naseem Almezel.

Last month I reported that Cincinnati's Heimlich Institute had awarded $343,000* to the University of Cincinnati's Hoxworth Blood Center for a research study using animals. (1/20/11 update: Per the responses to FOIAs I submitted to the university, mice were used in the research.)

* 5/14/12 update: According to the Heimlich Institute, the total awarded to UC was $615,000.

What made this interesting is that a high-profile Washington, DC-based animal rights advocacy group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) had long included the Heimlich Institute on their list of approved charities that "(do) not fund or conduct animal experiments."

Not any more.

The Heimlich Institute is now MIA from PCRM's list.

Here's a screen shot I grabbed last month. At this writing, the same information is still visible in Google's cached version of the page.


Now here's a screen shot taken tonight from the same web page:


Over the past few weeks I sent multiple e-mails to PCRM founder/president Dr. Neal Barnard and to two of his organization's media representatives, but never received a reply.

As of tonight, my father is still listed as a member of PCRM's medical advisory board.

I have no information whether or not PCRM intends to continue to present its Henry J. Heimlich Award for Innovative Medicine which the organization established in 2005.

Heimlich personally decided to help fund the research being done at Hoxworth. When Heimlich decided to make such a donation in the name of research at Hoxworth, Deaconess decided to contribute to Heimlich's donation.

"Doctor Heimlich personally saw the potential in the research of Dr. Leemhuis and Dr. Cancelas," said Patrick Ward, executive director of Deaconess Associations Foundation said.

UPDATE, 1/20/11
Response to my FOIA re: use of animals in Heimlich Insitute-funded research at Hoxworth Blood Center, Unive...
This photo at the beginning of this item has been updated.