The Sidebar

1995 CNN report about SALF. Durbin (1:45): "When (Carol Spizzirri) came in and sat down with me and told this story to me face to face, I was with her and decided I would do everything I could to help her."

In e-mails last year, US Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin's press secretary Christina Mulka provided a variety of false information about her boss's relationship with the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), the embattled Chicago-area nonprofit under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General and apparently by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Perhaps most seriously, she failed to disclose a 1999 request by Sen. Durbin for a $1 million appropriation to SALF, funding that went through the following year.

In year 2000 applications for $50,000 in Illinois state funding, SALF claimed Durbin was a member of the organization's corporate Advisory Board.

That same year, Durbin was listed as Honorary Chairman for a SALF Dinner Dance fundraiser.

And according to an August 28, 2006 press release issued by Mayor Richard Daley's office, SALF partnered in a Chicago emergency preparedness program spearheaded by Durbin.

Three months later, SALF and its founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri were the subject of a scorching ABC I-Team expose.

Durbin isn't the only one in the shadows of SALF. Recently, Illinois newspapers reported that the pending appointment of Gery Chico, another prominent Illinois Democrat, to head the Illinois State Board of Education has stalled as a result of questions being asked about his ties to SALF.

And last month a Michigan educator asked US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to answer questions about a $174,000 contract Duncan arranged for SALF when he was Chicago Schools CEO.

Back to Senator Durbin, here's an e-mail exchange from last year between his press secretary and blogger Lee Cary of Little Elm, Texas (north of Dallas), who was asking about the senator's connection to SALF and Spizzirri. (Click here to view the originals.)

From: Mulka, Christina (Durbin)
To: Lee Cary [mailto:lee.cary@att.net]
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 12:51 PM
Subject: RE: media inquiry - SALF

Lee,

Senator Durbin’s involvement was limited to the service he would provide for any Illinois constituent – he and his staff helped the founder navigate the bureaucracy in Washington. As you saw in the CNN video, Senator Durbin’s support was personal in nature and did not extend beyond having sympathy with Carol Spizzirri. Senator Durbin wrote no legislation on behalf of SALF and never worked to appropriated (sic) funding for the organization.
 
And, I hardly think that a video – that is 15 years old – of Senator Durbin expressing sympathy for a woman who lost her daughter in a tragic accident is evidence of long-term support.

Christina Mulka
Press Secretary
202.228.5643

From: Lee Cary [mailto:lee.cary@att.net]
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 6:18 PM
To: Mulka, Christina (Durbin)
Subject: Re: media inquiry - SALF

Christina,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

Based on your response, my understanding is that the Senator is on the record that his last contact with the Save-A-Life Foundation was in 1995. If that information is incorrect, please get back to me by end of the day Tuesday, 8/3. If you require more time, please advise and I'll do my best to adjust to your schedule.

By the way, regarding Ms. Spizzirri and her organization, you may wish to watch this 11/16/06 ABC7 report by Chuck Goudie. Google for more.

Lee

From: Mulka, Christina (Durbin)
To: Lee Cary [mailto:lee.cary@att.net]
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 2:23 PM
Subject: RE: media inquiry - SALF
 
Lee –
 
You have asked about a 15 year old contact between then-Congressman Durbin and a constituent; I explained he was sympathetic to her in the wake of terrible personal tragedy.
 
You have asked whether Sen. Durbin has provided support for her or her organization; I explained that other than being sympathetic on a personal level, he has not secured federal or private funds for her or her group, and did not introduce any legislation to assist SALF while he served in the House or the Senate.
 
You asked for an on-the-record statement from our office; we provided you with such a statement. In each case, I have responded as quickly as possible and to the best of my ability about an event that occurred more than a decade ago, and has not been an on-going issue for this office since.
 
And off-the-record: Given the ideological bent of your website, I will confess that I am suspicious of your motives. I think we will let our responses to your previous questions stand, and move on to other, more timely matters.

Christina Mulka
Press Secretary
202.228.5643

Mulka's "ideological bent" comment is probably because, in a previous e-mail, Cary identified himself as a writer for the American Thinker, a hard-right online magazine.

And a quick aside to potential sources: The Sidebar doesn't publish off the record information. In this case I'm making an exception because last September the American Thinker published Mulka's e-mail in an article by Cary, including her off the record comment.

Regarding Mulka's on the record statements, this may be her biggest fail: an October 31, 1999 request for $1 million for SALF in a letter from Durbin to Sen. Arlen Specter, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education.



A year later, $921,000 came through via the CDC (which is under the aegis of HHS), which eventually awarded SALF a total of about $3.33 million.


Durbin's funding request letter (click here to download) contains what I consider to be these unsupportable claims:

This organization has trained 35,000 Cook County children since October, 1998, with the assistance of 150 firefighters, paramedics, and police officers as their instructors.

For example, although the Chicago Tribune reported in 2009 that "2 million children took the classes, many of them from the Chicago Public Schools," per my website, the Chicago Public Schools have been unable to produce any training records.

Therefore it's unclear where Durbin's claimed 35,000 Cook County children were trained and who the 150 instructors were. So where did he obtain the numbers?

During the reporting of this story, I posed that and other questions to Christina Mulka.

She repeatedly refused to participate in this report.

Per this suburban Chicago newspaper article, Durbin was involved with SALF since before February 1995.



The article contradicts this claim Mulka made to Cary:

You have asked about a 15 year old contact between then-Congressman Durbin and a constituent....

But according to the 1995 article:

Congressman Richard Durbin (D-Chicago) was an early supporter of Save A Life Foundation President and Founder Carol Spizzini's efforts. 

"I received a letter stating, "I am not a resident of your district, but I would like to speak with you in Washington." The chances of me responding to that letter are normally slim and none (sic) but I was so moved by her story," Durbin stated.

Later that year, Durbin told CNN reporter Lisa Price (timestamp 1:45 in the video at the top of this item):

I've found the very best legislation in Washington DC comes from those personal, human, and family experiences. When (Carol Spizzirri) came in and sat down with me and told this story to me face to face, I was with her and decided I would do everything I could to help her.

During that face to face meeting, presumably Spizzirri failed to mention these personal, human, and family experiences reported last year by Don Bauder in the San Diego Reader:

(Carol) Spizzirri was a darling of politicians and bureaucrats, although it was a matter of record that she had been convicted twice for shoplifting. Save-A-Life began raking in money from government grants. 

...But it wasn’t until November of 2006 that ABC 7 News in Chicago, in the first of several broadcasts, exposed more of Spizzirri’s untruthful statements. She had told the station that she was a registered nurse. But the station reported that the institution from which she had claimed to receive her nursing degree had never given her one. A hospital in which she had claimed to be a transplant nurse said she had been a patient care assistant, which is akin to a candy striper.

...(Spizzirri's daughter) Christina filed for an order of protection against her mother. A neighbor who lives four houses away was willing to be Christina’s primary caretaker. The complaint stated that Spizzirri had struck Christina “on several occasions and threatened her on many occasions.” The order of protection, granted the same month, barred Spizzirri from seeing her daughter at several locations such as school and work. Christina “fears her mother will attempt to harass her or retaliate,” said the complaint.

From a 1997 article in the Grayslake (IL) Review:

Grayslake's Carol Spizzirri could be spending a lot more time in Washington D.C. this summer...

Spizzirri could do a lot in Washington in addition to using the legislative support she's received from Senator Dick Durbin, but for the time being Spizzirri is concentrating on this part of the country.

In Washington a Durbin legislative aide, Melissa Merz, said the senator has been working on setting national certification standards.

"We have worked with Carol for two years," Merz said. "We will continue to work with her to determine what form this federal legislation will take. Senator Durbin has not introduced legislation yet, but we are working with the U.S. Department of Transportaion and the Illinois Secretary of State's office," she said.

Here's another problematic document, a page from two year 2000 grant applications submitted by SALF for $50,000 in Illinois state funding from the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs that listed SALF's board and executive associates:


Other names on the document (click here to view) include IL Secretary of State Jesse White, former Illinois first lady Lura Lynn Ryan (who died last week), John Wayne Gacy's attorney Sam Amirante, the late Peter Safar MD (who developed CPR), my father, and other notables.

How about this?


In addition to Durbin, Ryan, Wood, and Topinka (who apparently sent Happy Birthday greetings to Spizzirri about a week ago), the 2000 SALF Dinner Dance Committee includes a long list of luminaries including Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan and former Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine.

Three years later at SALF's annual conference, the relationship with Durbin's still in good standing :


Three years later, here's SALF participating in a City of Chicago program for which Durbin arranged the funding:



A few months after the press release (click here to download a copy), ABC7 Chicago aired an I-Team story by reporter Chuck Goudie that included:

One of Illinois' highest profile charities teaches the Heimlich maneuver to children while maneuvering the truth to get money from government and big business.

It's called the Save-A-Life Foundation and is known across Illinois as an organization that teaches schoolchildren how to respond in emergencies. For the past few years, Save-A-Life has received millions of dollars in government funds and corporate donations. An ABC7 I-Team investigation has uncovered a series of misleading claims and deceptive credentials that raise doubts about Save-A-Life's integrity, funding and training.

Weeks ago I extended to Christina Mulka (and to Sen. Durbin's chief of staff Pat Souders) multiple opportunities to address the false information she provided to Lee Cary. I even graciously offered her this escape route:

(When) you provided the statements to Mr. Cary, you may not have consulted Senator Durbin beforehand and therefore were not in command of the facts...In order to avoid further inaccuracies, this is to request that you share with Senator Durbin the e-mails you sent to Mr. Cary on July 30 and August 2 last year. In the event that you or the senator wishes to revise those statements, please respond by next Monday, June 20. If you require more time, please advise before then and I'll accommodate your schedule.

Below are my final attempts and her last response.

Mulka also declined to answer these questions I previously submitted:

Does Senator Durbin agree or disagree that the Inspector General of HHS should initiate an investigation into the funding SALF received from the CDC?

A former SALF employee has stated that Senator Durbin visited SALF's Schiller Park offices in approximately January 2006. Has Senator Durbin ever visited SALF's offices? If so, on what date(s) and for what purpose(s)?

10/9/11 UPDATE: From the Federal Register, I just found this notation about the appropriation Sen. Durbin helped arrange:

Assistance for this project will be provided only to the Save a Life Foundation. FY 2001 Federal appropriations specifically directs CDC to award funds to the Save a Life Foundation. No other applications are solicited.

To Heimlich of Not?, Part II (re: the late Angela Henley), KTVO, Kirkland MO, 11/16/05

A few weeks ago, my Google News alert steered me to this line item from a long list of pending state business published in the Advocate, the daily paper in Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana:

HCR106 Extols the benefits of the Heimlich maneuver and encourages schools to teach this lifesaving technique.

At the legislature's website, I learned that HCR106 was a resolution introduced by Rep. Frank A. Hoffman, who represents District 15 which is in NE Louisiana. Click here to read the original version of the resolution.

Rep. Frank A. Hoffman

This caught my eye:


I recognized the 50,000 statistic and assumed it originated from the Heimlich Institute. I don't know how many choking victims have been saved by the Heimlich maneuver and I don't know where that 50,000 number originated. (Any statisticians out there?)

But according to this recent Washington Post article by reporter Tom Jackman, the tally for drowning victims is decidedly in the red:

The Heimlich maneuver became famous as a way for people to dislodge a foreign object from a choking person’s airway. But it’s been utterly discredited as a way of rescuing a person who is drowning, and can actually do serious harm to someone who has just been pulled from the water, numerous experts say.

...The list of experts who reject the Heimlich maneuver is lengthy: The American Red Cross; the United States Lifesaving Association; the American Heart Association; the Institute of Medicine; the International Life Saving Federation and many experienced doctors and academics have strongly inveighed against doing “abdominal thrusts” for drowning victims.

...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.

So I e-mailed the WaPo article and other information to Rep. Hoffman, including Some of the Victims, my web page that compiles a half-dozen young people who died in drowning events after having had the Heimlich maneuver (a/k/a abdominal thrusts) performed on them.

What followed was a friendly and productive first-name basis correspondence with Frank.

Sorry, I mean Rep. Hoffman.

Seriously, he responded immediately to my initial e-mail and expressed his appreciation that I'd reached out. He was very interested in learning more and wanted to get it right.

And I'm not even a constituent.

I shared with him the WaPo article and this compilation of statements from medical and water safety organizations about the dangers of doing the Heimlich maneuver on drowning victims.

Rep. Hoffman had been unaware of these concerns, but he assured me he took the matter seriously, promised to promptly review the information, and that he'd make any appropriate changes to the resolution.

Via this June 22 Senate floor amendment, he did just that: 


Click here or page down to read the final version of the Heimlich resolution, now scrubbed of any mention of drowning.

The results of my participation? Two words were scrubbed from the original draft.

Was I pleased? You better believe it.

That's why I posted this item, to say thank you to Rep. Hoffman.

Sorry, I mean Frank.

HCR106 Final Enrolled version, Louisiana House of Representatives (June 22, 2011)

From the June 18 Chicago Tribune:

Illinois lawmakers have a few other items to tackle besides keeping summer construction projects rolling when they return to Springfield on Wednesday...The Senate also is expected to act on a handful of recent Quinn appointments, including naming former Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico to head the Illinois State Board of Education.

Today Texas political writer Lee Cary asked the members of the Senate's Education Committee if, prior to confirming him for job, they intend to ask Chico about his ties to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a high-profile, politically-connected nonprofit which has been the subject of dozens of media exposes and is reportedly under investigation by the IL Attorney General's Charitable Trust Bureau.


According to his letter to the ten senators, in in the past six months, Cary sent multiple inquiries to Chico asking him to answer some straightforward questions about SALF, but never received a reply. 

Cary's letter, which was copied to a handful of Illinois reporters including ABC Chicago Chuck Goudie (and to me), includes this pull from Goudie's first report about SALF:

One of Illinois' highest profile charities teaches the Heimlich maneuver to children while maneuvering the truth to get money from government and big business.

It's called the Save-A-Life Foundation and is known across Illinois as an organization that teaches schoolchildren how to respond in emergencies. For the past few years, Save-A-Life has received millions of dollars in government funds and corporate donations. An ABC7 I-Team investigation has uncovered a series of misleading claims and deceptive credentials that raise doubts about Save-A-Life's integrity, funding and training.

Cary's letter also cited this Huffington Post article from February when Chico was a candidate in the Chicago mayoral race: Save A Life Foundation Connection: What Was (Chico's) Role At Troubled Charity? which reported:

When asked about Chico's involvement with the foundation, campaign spokeswoman Brooke Anderson flatly denied his involvement. "Gery wasn't on this board," she said. When presented with page 53 of the above document, Anderson responded, "That link you sent is wrong. Gery was not on that board."

According to Maura Possley, the deputy press secretary for the Illinois Attorney General's Office, a nonprofit misrepresenting the makeup of its board of directors in an annual report would be perjury, a Class 3 felony.

The Huffington Post asked the Chico campaign if it was willing to accuse Save A Life of perjury, and if so, whether it would be willing to publicly call for an investigation into the matter. So far, his campaign has not responded on that question, despite several further attempts at contact.

Chico served as the president of the school board from 1995 to 2001. He also appeared at SALF's "Bridge the Gap" Summit in 2003, where he received a 10th Year Anniversary Award from the organization.

In a news release from that same year, Chico's wife, Sunny, described her husband as "instrumental to bringing SALF to the Chicago Public Schools" during his tenure there.

It is unclear at this point why Chico would deny he was on the board, or, if indeed he was not, why he would be unwilling to press for further investigation, given his forceful campaigning on ethics reform.

Gery Chico accepts award from SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri, reportedly a twice-convicted shoplifter who claimed non-existent medical credentials and a bogus college degree. (Source document here.)

Cary's letter also suggested to the committee members that they ask Chico about a 1999 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) resolution he signed (along with Paul Vallas) that invited SALF into CPS, stating:

(SALF) has trained 35,000 statement in 1998, including 10.000 Chicago children and 23,000 more students who are schedule to complete the Save a Life Training by April 1999.

Cary's letter pointed out that "the only records the Chicago Schools have been able to produce indicate that at best a few hundred students were trained," so where did Chico come up with the numbers?



The letter also informed the senators that on August 27, 1999, just three months after Mr. Chico signed the CPS resolution, the State Board of Education (ILBOE) awarded $600,000 to SALF. However, in response to a FOIA request, the ILBOE's public information officer has repeatedly stated that no records except this ledger showing the payout. Per Cary's letter, "There are no applications, no review forms, no follow-up reports, no correspondence – nothing."


Cary's final request to the senators:

I'd also appreciate you asking (Chico) that if he's appointed to run the State Board of Education, will he investigate what happened to the $600,000 awarded to SALF?

Download a copy of his letter here or via the Scribd link below.
inquiry to IL state education committee members re: Gery Chico, Save-A-Life Foundation, 6/20/11

SALF founder/president, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, 2/18/05

Kentucky Bar recommends disbarment for Stan Chesley by Jim Hannah, June 14, 2011 

The Kentucky Bar Association Board of Governors handed down a potential professional death sentence Tuesday when it voted that famed Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley should be permanently disbarred in the state.

Two proffer letters from Stan Chesley to me and my wife, August-September 2004

Stan Chesley has a reputation as a "limousine liberal" who provides copious amounts of money to Democratic issues and candidates, but one of the nationally renowned lawyer's latest pet causes is helping re-elect arch-conservative Hamilton County Commission President Phil Heimlich.

Campaign finance records show that Chesley has donated $12,500 to Heimlich's campaign.

...Chesley also has ties to Heimlich and Hamilton County government. Chesley is representing Hamilton County in its legal challenges against the Bengals and the National Football League about the construction and lease terms of the county-owned Paul Brown Stadium. The county alleged the team and the NFL violated anti-trust laws by using trade restraints to force the county to pay far more to build the $458 million stadium than a free marketplace would have required.

...Also, Chesley held a fundraiser for Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro in his failed Republican gubernatorial bid. Heimlich was briefly Petro's running mate. Later, Petro appointed Chesley's law firm to represent the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority in its lawsuit against a pension investment fund.

From Heimlich Family Feud: Commissioner offers to settle 'defamation' claim by Kevin Osborne, Cincinnati CityBeat, November 1, 2006

As if the reelection campaign of Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich hasn't had enough trouble in recent weeks, CityBeat has learned that Heimlich's insurance company offered a $3,000 payment to settle a claim that the commissioner allegedly defamed his estranged brother.

Phil Heimlich's brother, Peter, has rejected the offer and is instead demanding a public retraction and apology from the commissioner for telling newspaper reporters and others that Peter has mental problems.

..."For some time Phil has been circulating false and defamatory statements about me," says Peter, who lives in an Atlanta suburb with his wife, Karen Shulman. "For instance, last year Phil told an Enquirer reporter that I 'had a history of mental illness and that the family was dealing with it.'

"My reputation's not for sale, and I think smearing somebody to stop them from telling the truth is contemptible. Phil has a history of stepping on people. This time he went too far."

my attorney Louis Sirkin's cease & desist, apology demand letter to my brother Phil Heimlich, 2/7/06

my attorney Louis Sirkin's letter to my brother Phil Heimlich re: Stan Chesley's interference, 3/28/06


From Phil Heimlich Registers As City Hall Lobbyist: Dead GOP Political Career Puts Heimlich to Work For Concrete Company by Bill Sloat, The Daily Bellwether, October 6, 2010

Almost four years after he was voted out of office as a Hamilton County Commissioner, Phil Heimlich is back, or sort of back. The one-time star of conservative GOP politics in SW Ohio has signed on as a City Hall legislative agent -- lobbyist -- for Hilltop Companies, which runs a ready mixed concrete business in Cincinnati.

...The new gig for Heimlich -- the son of Dr. Henry Heimlich -- marks another leg on the long downward trajectory of his political career. In 2006, Heimlich was riding high and was the running mate of former Ohio Atty. Gen. Jim Petro, who wanted to move into the governor's mansion. Their campaign flopped. Heimlich quit the ticket and sought reelection as commissioner. He was whipped by Democrat David Pepper. Two years ago, Heimlich tried to run for Congress in OH-02 against Jean Schmidt. He quit that race, too.

From Chesley Inc. by Lucy May, Cincinnati Business Courier, December 6, 2004

In the (1994) American Lawyer article, Seattle attorney Leonard Schroeter called Chesley "the ultimate grotesque, exaggerated perversion of what it means to be a lawyer."

He is no more charitable now.

"I've known him for 40 years, and I've always thought he was an opportunist and just a nasty son of a bitch."

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