Heimlich's Latest Maneuvers

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He’s a legendary healer. His lifesaving “hug,” the Heimlich maneuver, has saved thousands—if not millions—of lives. Health Monitor caught up with Dr. Henry Heimlich and his wife, Jane, over breakfast at a restaurant near their home in Cincinnati.

 

Dr. “Hank” Heimlich may be the most famous doctor in the world, but in this diner, he’s just the tall, lanky fellow who comes in almost every week for eggs and grits. At age 89, his voice is whispery but forceful as the conversation moves from politics to food to summer getaways in Wisconsin. Jane, a noted alternative-medicine author, prompts him with anecdotes about their travels and friends.

 

Inevitably, talk turns to his “latest maneuver”—his upcoming autobiography, Heimlich’s Maneuvers, to be published shortly by Bartleby Press. Among other highlights, the book recounts how, in 1953, Dr. Heimlich launched his career by creating a surgical procedure for replacing the esophagus—and had his first major clash with authority by taking full credit for his work instead of stepping aside and allowing his department head to take the bows. It’s a practice referred to by young researchers as “scientific slavery,” and Dr. Heimlich says he wasn’t about to let someone else get famous for his scientific breakthrough.

 

Even the Heimlich maneuver raises controversy. For nearly two decades, Dr. Heimlich has wanted the American Red Cross to adopt the maneuver as the first treatment for drowning victims instead of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The Red Cross refuses, insisting that most drowning incidents are “dry” drownings—that is, without water in the lungs—and that rescuers should perform CPR first before trying the “abdominal thrust,” as they refer to the Heimlich maneuver.

 

“That’s the way it’s always been with me,” Dr. Heimlich says, smiling. “A problem, then a solution, then a long fight to get the solution accepted. But you can’t distinguish yourself by sticking with the pack—by playing it safe. Step away and take risks,” he says. “That’s how you build self-confidence.”

 

Later that morning, Dr. Heimlich sits in his home office, surrounded by awards and gifts from dignitaries. Above his desk hangs a drawing by Dayton, Ohio, cartoonist Mike Peters of a young man in a movie theater, trying to sneak his arm around a woman. The caption reads, “Young Heimlich’s First Maneuver.”

 

On one shelf sits the American Public Health Association’s Albert Lasker Award for inventing the maneuver, the lifesaving “hug” he created in 1974, using a choking dog. (“The dog lived,” he is quick to point out.) On another shelf is a photo of Dr. Heimlich with the late newscaster Tim Russert, framed with a note reading, “It was a pleasure to meet you, thank you for saving so many lives.” The note is dated May 12, 2008, just a month before Russert died from a massive heart attack.

 

Dr. Heimlich has known scores of celebrities over the years. More than a few have been saved by the Heimlich maneuver, including President Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor, Woody Allen, and Cher. He keeps up with maneuver rescues through “Google Alert.” Roughly a dozen reports come to him every week. On this day, he learns of a man who was choking at a steak house in Texas and a schoolboy choking on a cracker in Massachusetts—both saved by the maneuver. Cookbook author Joan Nathan choked at dinner during President Obama’s Inauguration Weekend; a chef saved her with the maneuver and it was reported in the New York Times. “I took the opportunity to write a letter to the editor,” Dr. Heimlich says, “warning readers never to slap a choking person on the back—that could push the object deeper into the throat.”

 

The maneuver isn’t Dr. Heimlich’s only invention, though he jokes that it may be the only one that hasn’t earned him any money. Much of his income is from other gadgets he’s patented, such as the Heimlich Micro-Trach, a device inserted into the trachea that allows oxygen-dependent patients to carry a small oxygen container, rather than lugging around a heavy tank. Another is the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve, invented in 1963; more than 150,000 are used each year to prevent fluid and air from entering the chest through a bullet or stab wound, saving far more lives, Dr. Heimlich believes, than the maneuver. Use of the drain valve during the Vietnam War “was the first time in history,” he says, “when you could be shot in the chest in battle and be saved.”

 

When Dr. Heimlich’s book is released, he will have competition: His wife, Jane, daughter of famous dance instructors Arthur and Kathryn Murray, will release her own memoir, Out of Step (Orange Blossom Press), later this year.

 

Jane and Henry Heimlich have read each other’s manuscripts, offering comments and questions along the way. Watching him walk alongside her, his hand gently guiding her arm, it is clear that theirs is a deep friendship—although, having grown up in fame’s shadow, Jane says she “was determined never to marry anyone famous. And look what happened—I married the most famous doctor in the world!”

 

But there’s one anecdote you won’t find in Heimlich’s Maneuvers—the doctor’s own use of the Heimlich maneuver to save someone’s life. The famous doctor has never had the opportunity to administer the maneuver on a choking victim—yet.  

 

Dec. 2009/Jan. 2010