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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 Lawmakers May End Anti-Choking Poster Law by Susy Solis, KXAS-TV News (Dallas//Fort Worth NBC affiliate):

A bill before the Texas Legislature would no longer require restaurants to have a poster showing the Heimlich Maneuver.

The state law requiring the posters has been in place for 22 years, but Rep. Ralph Sheffield, R-Temple, says the posters are not necessary.

He says the Heimlich isn't the only way to help a choking victim, as many people can dislodge a stuck piece of food with a swat to the back.

...The American Red Cross teaches both techniques -- the abdominal thrust and the back blows.

"Neither of those methods are better than the other; they are all effective," said Andria Butler, an instructor of a training and preparedness class at the American Red Cross.

From Senate passes Heimlich poster bill by Chuck Lindell, Austin Statesman-American, May 19, 2011

The Senate this morning passed a bill rescinding the requirement that Texas restaurants display a poster showing how to perform the Heimlich maneuver to save choking victims.

We wrote about the bill - and the behind-the-scenes controversy over how best to treat choking - Monday.

Click here to track the history of the bill (HB 3065) via Texas Legislature Online.

Update: On June 17, 2011, the bill was signed by the governor and made effective immediately. 


The Cincinnati Business Courier reported the story on May 16 (before the Senate vote) and included this:

In 2006, the Red Cross reverted to back slaps as an effective first step to help someone who can’t breathe.

(Dr. Henry) Heimlich is one of Cincinnati’s most famous physicians. He has been harshly criticized for his later work. That includes his campaign to convince the medical community that the Heimlich maneuver should be used on drowning victims, and his experiments that attempted to treat AIDS by inducing malaria in patients.

No other Queen City media reported the Texas poster law story.

The 2006 Red Cross update has never been reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer or by any Cincinnati TV news station.