
Henry Heimlich has died - happy-go-lucky
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/17/505986552/dr-heimlich-creator-of-live-saving-maneuver-dies
======
bootload
_" "As a young surgeon, Dad was the first American to devise and perform a
total organ replacement. Later, he came up with a device that saved thousands
of soldiers' lives during the Vietnam War. The Heimlich Chest Drain Valve is
still used worldwide for patients undergoing chest surgery."_

Clearly Heimlich should be known for more than the HM.

~~~
vanderZwan
It's also mechanically incredibly simple[0], to the point where you can fairly
easily DIY it (or a variation of it) if you ever need it.

My dad (a doctor) did so once decades ago, while working in a hospital in
Ghana. His patient was a man with a collapsed lung. IIRC, he took a surgeon
glove, cut off the tips of two fingers, attached one to a tube, and made a
knot in the wrist (so it became kind of like a balloon with two openings). The
tube was attached to the lung, to drain fluid. The glove was partially
submerged in a bucket of water, so it now functioned like a valve: when the
patient breathed out, air and fluid could escape from the glove. When he
breathed in, the suction plus water pressure would "seal off" the glove.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutter_valve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutter_valve)

~~~
bootload
_" It's also mechanically incredibly simple"_

Holy cow, hats off to your Dad for this. Everything is simple in theory,
putting it into practice on a critically ill person is something else.

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seibelj
I am by no means denigrating the man's accomplishments, he certainly was a
great man. However, it is worth noting that he became something of a quack,
advocating that the maneuver could cure various ailments unrelated to
choking.[0] The linked Radio Lab episode provides a full picture of the man
and is very interesting.

[0]
[http://www.radiolab.org/story/273532-heimlich/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/273532-heimlich/)

~~~
defen
There is also some really weird stuff with his kids, where at least one of his
sons and the son's wife consider him to be a total fraud. Gelman wrote about
it here (including link to son's page)
[http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/](http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/)

~~~
danso
From the comments section:

[http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/#comment-325017](http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/#comment-325017)

> Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is stranger than truth. Andrew’s
> next-to-last sentence links to:

> “(The Heimlich manoeuvre) has never been used in Australia. Despite the
> claims of the extremely charismatic Dr. Heimlich, Australian resuscitation
> experts believe that there isn’t enough scientific evidence to support its
> use. So how does a medical procedure become so widely adopted without any
> serious scientific evidence? — The Heimlich manoeuvre by Aviva Ziegler,
> Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 27, 2009”

I'm on mobile so am not able to look it up easily, but I'm assuming there are
_some_ experiments to verify beyond anecdotes whether the maneuver works,
right?

Also, what _do_ Australians use in lieu of it?

~~~
eps
This was on HN some time ago - apparently there is some sort of research that
states that patting/whacking on the back was in fact as affective as Heimlich
manoeuvre.

~~~
spectre
The general recommendation is now to start with 5 Back Blows then 5 Abdominal
Thrusts (the Heimlich), repeated as necessary.

Mayo Clinic: [http://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-
choking/basics...](http://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-
choking/basics/art-20056637)

European Resuscitation Council:
[http://ercguidelines.elsevierresource.com/european-
resuscita...](http://ercguidelines.elsevierresource.com/european-
resuscitation-council-guidelines-resuscitation-2015-section-1-executive-
summary#Foreignbodyairwayobstructionchoking)

Australia (and New Zealand) Resuscitation Councils:
[http://www.nzrc.org.nz/training/ECI/anzcor-
guidelines-2016-u...](http://www.nzrc.org.nz/training/ECI/anzcor-
guidelines-2016-update-for-first-aid-providers/#Choking)

In the case of Australia/New Zealand the recommendation is to do 5 Back Blows
then 5 Chest Thrusts. My understanding is that it's believed to be similarly
effective but has less risk of causing internal injuries.

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schoen
The Heimlich maneuver is one of those things that's much more recent than I
imagined. (Another is the bicycle, the modern design of which is only from the
late 1800s, just a few decades before the automobile and airplane.)

~~~
sparky_z
See also: Ciabatta Bread. I always assumed it had deep historical roots in
Italian culinary tradition, but turns out it was invented by some Italian
baker in the 1980s who was envious of the French and their baguettes.

~~~
schoen
Wow, thanks for the example. It turns out ciabatta is about the same age as
the bakery I get it from (!).

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serg_chernata
Here's an interesting fact, he used his own move for the first time earlier
this year[1].

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787093](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787093)

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chasing
First, a fun fact:

I was in a class teaching the Heimlich Maneuver yesterday afternoon. The
teacher notes that Heimlich is, in fact, still alive at 96 years old. Not five
minutes later someone holds up their iPhone -- "hey, I just got the craziest
news alert..."

Second:

According to the same teacher, as well, some lawsuits on the part of Heimlich
or his family have caused the American Heart Association to now recommend
using the term "abdominal thrusts" instead of "Heimlich maneuver." Which the
teacher considered sad because it would cause the name of the doctor to be
forgotten over time. I'm having a hard time finding an online reference to
this -- so curious if anyone else has heard something along these lines.

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sandstrom
This short interview (1m 20s) about Heimlich saving another guest at the
nursing home he was living in is wonderful.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yWQ50MnBM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yWQ50MnBM)

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canada_dry
Chalk another one up to 2016.

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xyzzy4
Black bar?

