The Sidebar

Rotary International, Bay City, MI, 2006: incoming president Gena Gates (left), source

Per the June 3, 2011 Washington Post, the American Red Cross warns that performing the Heimlich maneuver on someone who's drowning is "unnecessary and potentially dangerous."

How dangerous? From the same article, this body count:

In Tampa, which has one of the highest drowning rates in the country, Dr. James Orlowski said he has documented nearly 40 cases where rescuers performing the Heimlich maneuver have caused complications for the victim. Orlowski is chief of pediatrics and pediatric intensive care at University Community Hospital in Tampa.

Complications = brain damage or death.

Meanwhile in Bay City, Michigan, as reported by Holly Setter in the Bay City Times:

This year’s recipient of the Teamwork Hero award from the Red Cross “Heroes Among Us” recognition program, (Heather) Irish put her medical training to good use and saved a man who would have drowned without aid...Irish pulled him above water and began administering the Heimlich maneuver to clear his airway. Just as he finished vomiting water, Irish said he went into a grand mal seizure.

 ...While she said she is thankful that she was able to step in and save a life, Irish said she’s a bit befuddled by the Red Cross hero designation.

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” she said.

Absolutely ridiculous indeed. Please read on.

After seeing Ms. Setter's article, I wanted to learn why the American Red Cross (ARC) would present an award to someone who misguidedly performed a discredited medical treatment that their organization warned against.

So I e-mailed these questions to Gena Gates, Executive Director of Michigan's East Shoreline ARC chapter, which presented the award:

1) Based on this description (in the Bay City Times article), it's unclear whether or not Ms. Irish was taught to apply the Heimlich maneuver (a/k/a abdominal thrusts) to clear water from the airway of a near-drowning victim in a Red Cross training class, perhaps via your chapter. Can you clarify?
 
2) Based on the presentation of the award, my understanding is that your chapter endorses the use of the Heimlich maneuver for near-drowning rescue. Is that accurate?
 
3) When Ms. Setter was reporting her article, did any representatives of your organization make her aware of the American Red Cross's position on the use of the Heimlich maneuver for near-drowning per the attached August 2005 ARC "hot topics" memo and per this 2006 policy statement? 

 Her answers:

1. I don’t know whether Ms. Irish was taught to use abdominal thrusts to clear water from the airway of a near-drowning victim. As she is quoted, if she had simply followed her training, she would not have thought to use this method. I do not know what training Ms. Irish has had.
 
2. Our chapter follows the guidelines established by the American National Red Cross for lifesaving skills training, as we are required to do.
 
3. There was no discussion with Ms. Setter or with any of our heroes about the Red Cross position on any lifesaving techniques.

...Ms. Irish did not actually receive an award at our event yesterday. After her initial interview with our staff, she did not respond to phone calls....

In other words, Ms. Gates didn't do her homework and the recipient didn't even want the award.

Assuming she'd want to fix her goof so that Bay City Times readers didn't get the idea that they should perform the Heimlich on a drowning victim and perhaps add more names to Dr. Orlowski's casualty list, I then sent Ms. Gates this modest request:

Under the circumstances, do you or any other Red Cross representatives intend to write a clarification letter to the editor of the Bay City Times or to request a published clarification?

I didn't receive a reply. So I sent her a follow-up.

I didn't receive a reply to that either, so I sent her another follow-up. I didn't receive a reply to that either.

Okay, I thought. Since Ms. Gates is playing ostrich, I'll bring this to Red Cross national in Washington.

Remember their slogan? "Together, We Can Save a Life." Surely they'd encourage her to put pen to paper to correct the record or maybe they'd write to the paper themselves?

Here's what came back: 

Subject: RE: media inquiry
From: LauritzenD@usa.redcross.org
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 17:00:54 -0400
To: pmh@medfraud.info
CC: JantzM@usa.redcross.org, david_markenson@nymc.edu, gatesg@redcross-esc.org

Mr. Peter Heimlich:

After reading your email and reviewing the correspondence you submitted, I spoke with Ms. Gena Gates on the phone. Ms. Gates confirmed that the East Shoreline Chapter will not be submitting a letter to the editor of the Bay City Times regarding this matter.

The intent of the chapter was to recognize Ms. Irish for her selfless, heroic actions of helping someone in need and for saving the gentleman’s life. We do not intend to diminish the efforts of Ms. Irish by asking clarification of exactly what skills she performed that day.

Sincerely,

Don Lauritzen
Officer, Preparedness and Health and Safety Services Communications
American Red Cross National Headquarters
Address: 431 18th Street NW, Washington DC 20006
Phone: 202.303.4775 Fax: 202.303.6604
Email: lauritzend@usa.redcross.org

Unless I'm missing something, the American Red Cross is now on the record supporting the application of dangerous and improper medical treatments if the victim survives.

As for these awards, which the Red Cross hands out endlessly, situations like make it seem like they're less for the benefit of the recipients - remember that Ms. Irish didn't even want hers? - and more of an opportunity to generate positive media coverage and attract donations.

Fine, business is business. But in this case, by failing to clean up their mess, the Red Cross is putting lives at risk. Also, is writing a quick letter to the editor such a challenge, Ms. Gates? Mr. Lauritzen?      

How about the Bay City Times? Surely they'd would want to correct the record with a quick clarification in order to protect the health and welfare of their readers.

How about this? "To our readers: Holly Setter's report about the East Shoreline Red Cross's 'Heroes Among Us' award may have created the impression that the Heimlich maneuver was an acceptable treatment for drowning rescue. In fact, performing the treatment might kill someone. Don't do it, folks."

Or words to that effect.

After all, the Bay City Times claims to be all about helping their community. Says so here on their website:

Holly Setter, Bay City Times

After being fully informed about the issues, including that the ARC warns against the use of the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue, how did they repond?

Subject: Re: author inquiry
From: Holly Setter <setter@boothmidmichigan.com>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 08:36:59 -0400
To: Peter M. Heimlich <pmh@medfraud.info>
 
Mr. Heimlich,
 
I appreciate your follow through on this particular issue. In my article, I did not imply that the Red Cross advocates using the Heimlich maneuver as an effect means of saving someone who has nearly drowned nor did I dispute that. The woman featured in the article described her actions as similar to the Heimlich and that was how it was presented to me by staff at the Red Cross prior to their decision to not give her the award.
 
My editor and I do not feel there is any need for a correction or clarification as the information in the article was accurate to what both the Red Cross and Ms. Irish know to have happened and there is no assertion that it is the proper method for responding to a drowning situation.
 
If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.
 
-Holly
---
Holly Setter
Booth Mid-Michigan
hsetter@boothmidmichigan.com
(989) 513-6907

So much for the community.

I then asked Ms. Setter for her editor's name so I could include it in the item you're now reading. She told me his name is Rob Clark. I wanted to include a photo, so I Googled his name.

This information that turned up prompts me to take a brief detour into media criticism:


Did the fact that Mr. Clark succeeded Ms. Gates as president of the local Rotary affiliate have any bearing on his decision not to publish a clarification regarding his paper's Heimlich for drowning snafu?

I have no idea. And that's the problem.

Simply by being a Rotary member, Mr. Clark opens the door for readers to accuse him of bias. Does he deep-six critical reporting about other Rotarian's businesses? Is he hustling for ads at Rotary lunches?, etc.

Obviously the smart move for journalists is to circumvent the problem by not joining, let alone heading, such an organization.

By the way, for a possible future item, if you know any other mainstream media journalists who are Rotarians, please e-mail me the details.

End of detour. Back on the main road.

After I publish this item, I'm sending a link to officials at Red Cross national with the following request: 

Would you please send a memo to your chapters asking them to stop honoring people who perform the Heimlich maneuver on near-drowning victims?

Because as much as I thrive on newsworthy stories to blog about, I'd prefer not writing any more about young people who died in drownings after they received the Heimlich maneuver, like the ones posted on my website.

Here's one from Ms. Gates's home state:

Derrick Kelly lay unconscious on the deck of Eastern Michigan University’s Jones Pool, bloody foam oozing from his mouth and nose.

At that moment on the night of Jan. 31, 2003, decades’ worth of effort on the part of Dr. Henry J. Heimlich came into play when the maneuver bearing his name was performed in a desperate attempt to get the 17-year-old Detroit high school student breathing.

As part of an investigation into the incident, one of the lifeguards who tried to revive Kelly provided this written account of her efforts:

“I proceeded to give the victim rescue breaths, the breaths did not go in. The reason being was because the male’s jaw was locked shut and his tongue was swollen and stuck to the roof of his mouth. When I unlocked his jaw and moved his tongue I gave another rescue breath. As soon as I backed away to check his pulse, bloody foam came pouring from his nose and mouth. I then proceeded to do abdominal thrusts to remove the bloody foam, and then rescue breathing after the thrusts.”

She continued the routine for about three minutes. The effort failed. Kelly never drew another breath.

John J. Pippin MD FACC, Senior Medical and Research Adviser, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

From a recent profile of Dr. John J. Pippin in The American Dog Magazine (emphasis added): 

"I believe that all sentient creatures - human and nonhuman - have an inherent right to freedom from abuse and killing"... For the past six years, Dr. (John ) Pippin has worked full time with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a physician-led advocacy organization that promotes best scientific, medical, and ethical practices regarding human and nonhuman animals.

How does the information in this LA Weekly article from last April fit into that portrait of compassion?

In both its mission statement and its IRS filings, the Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) says it is "strongly opposed to unethical human research."

But the group is throwing a private Hollywood Art of Compassion bash Sunday night to hand out a major award named after Dr. Henry Heimlich, who has been condemned by mainstream medical organizations around the world for his 20-year program of trying to cure cancer and AIDS by injecting people with malaria-infected blood.

...Peter Heimlich says his father's malariotherapy research has been denounced as dangerous and irresponsible by the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. In 2002 the WHO called malariotherapy "an example of clearly unscrupulous and opportune research." Five years later, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said: "It is scientifically unsound, and I think it would be ethically questionable ... and it does have the fundamental potential of killing you."

Now the younger Heimlich asks, "How can the PCRM reconcile all that criticism with its position against unethical research? Why won't my father or anyone at PCRM answer that question?"

...Heimlich has not denied reports in the Cincinnati Beacon, an Internet magazine, that he is trying to resume the so-called malariotherapy experiments, which were first introduced in 1985 in Mexico - where he charged patients $10,000. The experiments were last conducted in 2005 in Gabon and Ethiopia.

In late 2008, Eric Matteson MD, a prominent Mayo Clinic physician and medical historian, exchanged letters with Dr. Pippin, asking him if he had any concerns about the notorious Heimlich atrocity experiments and his organization's relationship with my father.

Pippin's limp, pass-the-buck-to-his-boss responses are chronicled in my previous item that asked, Why does Dr. John J. Pippin turn a blind eye to the Heimlich medical atrocity experiments? 

The answer to that question may have been answered this week. He's been busy doing work that's more vital to him, protecting the rights of sentient nonhuman creatures at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, just a couple of miles from the Heimlich Institute:

In a letter dated today, John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., PCRM’s medical education and senior medical adviser, who worked with the hospital to adopt this curriculum change, congratulates CEO Michael Fisher on his institution's decision to end the use of ferrets.

As the LA Weekly reported, my father has been a member of PCRM's medical advisory board since 1986. Here's some of what he was up to during those years.

Cyndi Monahan

Cyndi Monahan of Rockaway NJ, who underwent "malariotherapy":

"Within two days I started to get fevers as high as 106 degrees"...After Monahan's return from Mexico City, life consisted of hours of fever followed by chills - and intense pain. "My lower back felt like a truck slammed into it and I found that a malaria headache is the most excruciating pain you can imagine." Her New Jersey doctor allowed the malaria to persist untreated for five weeks. During that time she logged 130 "fever hours," when her temperature exceeded 101 degrees. She vomited constantly, lost 40 lb. and required intravenous fluids to compensate for dehydration. "We went until my body couldn't take it anymore," she recalled, "and then I took the antimalarial drug...I'm going back for another treatment," she says. "Dr. Heimlich told me I may have to do it again. He's made all the arrangements with the doctors in Panama."

From Outmaneuvered by Thomas Francis, Radar Magazine, November 10-11, 2005:

Mekbib Wondewossen is an Ethiopian immigrant who makes his living renting out cars in the San Francisco area, but in his spare time he works for Dr. Heimlich, doing everything from "recruiting the patients to working with the doctors here and there and everywhere," Wondewossen says. The two countries he names are Ethiopia and the small equatorial nation of Gabon, on Africa's west coast.

"The Heimlich Institute is part of the work there - the main people, actually, in the research," Wondewossen says. "They're the ones who consult with us on everything. They tell us what to do."

Wondewossen says that the project does not involve syringes full of malaria parasites. "We never induce the malaria," he says. "We go to an epidemic area where there is a lot of malaria, and then we look for patients that have HIV too. We find commercial sex workers or people who play around in that area." Such people are high-risk for HIV, and numerous studies show the virus makes its victims more vulnerable to malaria.

A key to containing malaria is speedy treatment. In the most resource-poor areas, clinicians who lack the equipment necessary for diagnosing malaria will engage in presumptive treatment at the first signs of fever. This, says Wondewossen, runs contrary to Heimlich's interests. What physicians in Africa usually do "is terminate the malaria quickly when someone gets sick," he says. "But now we ask them to prolong it, and when we ask them to do that, the difference is very, very big."

Untreated malaria is horrible and includes periods of 105-degree fever, excessive sweating followed by chills and uncontrollable shivering, blinding headaches, vomiting, body aches, anemia, and even dementia. Heimlich's malariotherapy literature recommends the patient go two to four weeks without treatment. Delay in treatment, warns the CDC, is a leading cause of death.

Wondewossen say that the researchers involved in the study are not doctors. He refuses to name members of the research team, because he says it would get them into trouble with the local authorities. "The government over there is a bad government," he says. "They can make you disappear."

Wondewossen won't reveal the source of funding for this malariotherapy research. "There are private funders," he says. But as to their identity? "I can't tell you that, because that's the deal we make with them, you know?" He scoffs at the question of whether his team got approval to conduct this research from a local ethics review board. Bribery on that scale, he says, is much too expensive: "If you want the government to get involved there, you have to give them a few million - and then they don't care what you do."

PCRM has been criticized by others as being a "PETA front group" and even promotes a vegan diet on their web site.

"I'd say they're fools," said Dr. Pippin. '"We don't have any relationships with any industries. We don't do this for money.  We do it because it's the right thing to do."

9/2/06: Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer, Arne Duncan, received his second sponsorship award from the Save A Life Foundation (SALF)...Duncan was moved by SALF’s efforts to train 67,000 schoolchildren under his command stating, “I really appreciate the skills SALF is teaching the students of Chicago.” Duncan holds SALF’s Founder and CEO, Carol Spizzirri in the highest regard, stating, “Carol is one of my heroes.” (source)

Two months later....


"The Maneuver Part I" by Chuck Goudie, ABC7 11/16/06

Today Michigan educator Michael Paul Goldenberg asked US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan if he supports my request for an  investigation into what happened to $49,000 he awarded to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF).

Goldenberg, who lives in Ann Arbor, copied me on his open letter to Duncan which is posted on his blog, Rational Mathematics Education.

For supporting documents, Goldenberg linked to my web page, Did Arne Duncan unknowingly help a bogus nonprofit rip off $174,000 from the Chicago Schools & McDonald's Charities?

From his letter to Secretary Duncan, here's the beef (links and emphasis added):

You'll recall that SALF's charter was to provide in-class first aid training to students. According to an October 11, 2009 Chicago Tribune article, SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri claimed “2 million children took the classes, many of them from the Chicago Public Schools.”

...In response to a federal court subpoena and FOIA requests, the only records produced by CPS indicate that at best a few dozen students ever participated in SALF training classes. As result, Chicago Schools Inspector General James M. Sullivan has been asked to investigate what happened to approximately $62,000 CPS awarded to SALF, most of which was arranged by you. 

Records show that you contracted with Spizzirri to provide first-aid training for approximately 18,000 students from 2004-2006. You signed off on $49,000 in CPS funds and Ronald McDonald House Charities provided an additional $125,000, making a total of $174,000 paid to SALF for what appears to be a program that never happened.

Given the facts, do you think Inspector General Sullivan should proceed with an investigation? And would you co-operate with such an investigation?

Shortly after I received my copy of his letter, Goldenberg forwarded this to me:

Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 06:33:07 -0500
From: "Duncan, Arne" <Arne.Duncan@ed.gov>
Subject: RE: Information request re: Save-A-Life Foundation
To: Michael Paul Goldenberg <mikegold@umich.edu>

Dear Mr. Goldenberg:

Thank you for your e-mail to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. We appreciate hearing from you.

Your message has been forwarded to the appropriate staff member for review.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Edgar Mayes
Director of Correspondence and Communications Control Unit
Office of the Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
Washington, DC 20202

Will Duncan take any responsibility for what may be a six-figure rip-off of public and private dollars that he unknowingly facilitated?

If so, he'll be a standout among this bipartisan gallery of Illinois elected officials who helped award almost $9 million in state and federal funds to SALF and/or promoted the organization. All are aware of the concerns surrounding SALF. None have managed to find the resolve to request investigations.

Click the links for details. Click here for photos.

US Sen. Dick Durbin (link, link)
US Sen. Mark Kirk (link)
US Rep. John Shimkus (link)
US Rep. Jan Schakowsky (link)
US Rep. Tim Johnson (link)
IL Sen. Emil Jones Jr., retired (link)
IL Sen. Donne Trotter (link)
IL Sen. Raymond Poe (link)

Re: Goldenberg's letter, I'll be following up and will post any interesting developments here.

Until then, bear this in mind:

The coach, as a leader, has to take personal responsibility - Arne Duncan (source)

6/1/11 letter to Arne Duncan e: Save-A-Life Foundation from Michael Paul Goldenberg

From the website of Cincinnati's Heimlich Institute:

In June 1998, The Heimlich Institute became a member of Deaconess Associations Inc., to help advance and promote the mission and vision of The Heimlich Institute in perpetuity.

Since then, per the ABC News story below, the mission/vision have fallen on hard times. For years the so-called institute has been nothing more than a web site used to promote my father's potentially lethal crackpot medical claims: the use of the Heimlich maneuver for near-drowning victims, to stop asthma attacks, and to treat cystic fibrosis patients - and to "cure" AIDS by infecting patients with malaria.



Deaconess is a medical services corporation that claims to "enhance the well-being of our patients and communities where DAI has a presence."

It remains unclear how circulating quack claims that may seriously injure or kill people enhances those communities, but according to a recent Cincinnati Business Courier article, there's definitely enhancement in play:

As Deaconess Hospital failed, the man controlling it, Anthony Woods, did well. Woods, chairman and CEO of the hospital’s parent organization, the nonprofit Deaconess Associations Inc., had total pay of nearly $3 million in 2008, according to a tax filing.

By the way, Woods is responsible for bringing the Heimlich Institute into the Deaconess fold in 1998 and is now the HI's Chairman of the Board. Much of the responsibility for the organization's activities clearly rests on his shoulders.

E. Anthony Woods, Chairman, The Heimlich Institute (Cincinnati)

But wait! It turns out that there's another Heimlich Institute, this one operated by Scottsdale, Arizona chiropractor Chris Heimlich:



Based on this paragraph on his website, when it comes to claims about medical care, this other Dr. H is no slouch:

In practice for over 18 years, Dr. Heimlich deals with patients with nearly every type of illness and chronic pain disorder. His areas of interest include low back pain due to herniated discs, neck pain due to herniated discs, spinal stenosis, carpal tunnel syndrome, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia/sleep disorders, vertigo/dizziness/balance disorders, restless leg syndrome, IBS also known as irritable bowel syndrome, auto-immune diseases, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, gastrointestinal issues, cardiovascular wellness, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, developmental learning disorders from ADHD and ADD to Dyslexia, Asperger’s, PDD/NOS, and Autism.

I didn't come across anything on Arizona's Heimlich Institute website about drowning rescue, asthma attacks, or cystic fibrosis. For recommendations on how to treat those ailments - or if you want to be contract malaria - you can contact these people (source):

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.

6/18/11: From On Second Thought by Ben Kaufman, Cincinnati CityBeat's media critic:

(Anthony M. Bennett, disclosure branch chief of the Department of Homeland Security wrote) to Peter M. Heimlich, who was pursuing the cozy relationship between federal officials and funding of the dubious Save-A-Life Foundation. Because it’s the latest entry in my “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” file, I will quote Bennett’s exercise in critical thinking a couple weeks ago:

"This letter pertains to your (Peter Heimlich’s) Jan. 20, 2010, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/Federal Emergency Management Agency...By a letter dated March 19, 2010, we advised you of the estimated fee of $410.00 for processing your FOIA request. Because the estimated fee exceeded $250.00, we required an advance payment of the estimated fee for us to continue processing your request. We also advised you in that letter that if payment was not received within 14 business days, we would consider your request withdrawn. To date, we have not received your payment. As a result, we are administratively closing this case.

"Additionally, please be advised that because we have not received a payment of $410.00, we will not process any future requests you submit to this office. Moreover, in accordance with 6 C.F.R. 5.11(g), we may charge interest on any unpaid bill starting on the 31st day following the date of this letter. Interest charges will be assessed at the rate provided in 31 U.S.C. 3717 and will accrue from the date of the billing, in this case March 19, 2010, until payment is received by FEMA.

"FEMA shall follow the provisions of the Debt Collection Act of1982, as amended, and its administrative procedures, including the use of consumer reporting agencies, collection agencies, and offset. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this matter, please feel free to contact this office..."

Click here to view a copy of Dr. Bennett's March 31, 2011 letter.

Kaufman's publishing date coincided with the following correspondence:
my 4/18/11 inquiry/response to Dept. of Homeland Security

4/18/11 apology from Homeland Security 

While I'm pleased to get an apology from DHS and to once again be permitted to file FOIA requests with that agency, during the course of this dust-up, I took a closer look at 6 C.F.R. 5.11, cited in Dr. Bennett's letter. That's the section in DHS's FOIA guidelines which governs fees.

This caught my eye (emphasis added): 

(l) Payment of outstanding fees. The Department shall not process a FOIA request from persons with an unpaid fee from any previous FOIA request to any Federal agency until that outstanding fee has been paid in full to the agency.

In other words, if you owe a fee to another federal agency, for example, the Department of the Navy, DHS can refuse to fill your FOIA request.

Some Googling led to an interesting preliminary result. DHS appears to be the only federal agency whose FOIA guidelines include this cross-agency right to deny which in effect allows DHS to play the role of collection agency for any other branch of the government: "Want us to fill your FOIA? Not until you settle your bill with the Department of ____________."

I'm doing some snooping and if anything interesting turns up, I'll post the results.

From Basic first aid may save a life by Bianca Clare, Sunshine Coast Daily (Australia), April 4, 2011:

Darryl Clare is not surprised that a new survey has found one in three people have no idea how to administer first aid. The St John Ambulance first aid training officer says "Dr Google" and Hollywood blockbuster movies are increasingly misleading the public on what to do when things go wrong.

"The most common mistake made is thinking the Heimlich manoeuvre is the best way to treat someone who is choking," he said. " This is incorrect. The correct method is to give the patient five back blows between the shoulder blades.

"The Heimlich manoeuvre has been widely criticised, even by the founder's son.

"It can work it some cases, but it can lead to serious consequences...even death."

The survey revealed 36% of 1134 respondents would immediately think of the Heimlich manoeuvre when someone was choking.

From worksheet for 2010 ILCOR Evidence-Based Review of Science for Emergency Cardiac Care (p.7-8):

Case reports of complications from abdominal thrusts

Agia GA, Hurst DJ. Pneumomediastinum following the Heimlich maneuver. JACEP. 1979;8:473-475.

Ayerdi J, Gupta SK, Sampson LN, Deshmukh N. Acute abdominal aortic thrombosis following the Heimlich maneuver. Cardiovasc Surg. 2002;10:154-156.

Bintz M, Cogbill TH. Gastric rupture after the Heimlich maneuver. J Trauma. 1996;40:159-160.

Chapman JH, Menapace FJ, Howell RR. Ruptured aortic valve cusp: a complication of the Heimlich maneuver. Ann Emerg Med 1983; 12: 446-448.

Cowan M, Bardole J, Dlesk A. Perforated stomach following the Heimlich maneuver. Am J Emerg Med. 1987;5:121-122.

Croom DW. Rupture of stomach after attempted Heimlich maneuver. Jama. 1983;250:2602-2603.

Desai SC, Chute DJ, Desai BC, Koloski ER. Traumatic dissection and rupture of the abdominal aorta as a complication of the Heimlich maneuver. J Vasc Surg 2008; 48: 1325-1327.

Drinka P. TBroken ribs following CPR or the Heimlich maneuver. J Am Med Directors Association 2009;10:283-284.

Dupre MW, Silva E, Brotman S. Traumatic rupture of the stomach secondary to Heimlich maneuver. Am J Emerg Med. 1993;11:611-612.

Feeney SN, Pegoli W, Gesting ML. Pancreatic transection as a complication of the Heimlich maneuver: case report and literature review. J Trauma 2007; 62: 252-254.

Feldman T, Mallon SM, Bolooki H. Fatal acute aortic regurgitation in a person performing the Heimlich maneuver. N Engl J Med; 1986; 315: 1613.

Gallardo A, Rosado R, Ramirez D, Medina P, Mezquita S, Sanchez J. Rupture of the lesser gastric curvature after a Heimlich maneuver. Surg Endosc. 2003;17:1495.

Haynes DE, Haynes BE, Yong YV. Esophageal rupture complicating Heimlich maneuver. Am J Emerg Med 1984; 2: 507-509.

Kirshner RL, Green RM. Acute thrombosis of abdominal aortic aneurysm subsequent to Heimlich maneuver: a case report. J Vasc Surg. 1985;2:594-596.

Lee SL, Kim SS, Shekherdimian S, Ledbetter DJ. Complications as a result of the Heimlich maneuver. J Trauma 2009;66:E34-E35.

Mack L, Forbes TL, Harris KA. Acute aortic thrombosis following incorrect application of the Heimlich maneuver. Ann Vasc Surg. 2002;16:130-133.

Majumdar A, Sedman PC. Gastric rupture secondary to successful Heimlich manoeuvre. Postgrad Med J. 1998;74:609-610.

Martin TJ, Bobba RK, Metzger R, Madalina M, Bollu M, Patel BG, Kazemi MM. Acute abdominal aortic thrombosis as a complication of the Heimlich maneuver. J Am Geriatr Soc 2007; 55: 1146−1147.

Meredith MJ, Liebowitz R. Rupture of the esophagus caused by the Heimlich maneuver. Ann Emerg Med. 1986;15:106-107.

Nowitz A, Lewer BM, Galletly DC. An interesting complication of the Heimlich manoeuvre. Resuscitation 1998;39:129--131.

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