Heimlich manoeuvre inventor uses his technique at 96 to save choking woman
28 May 2016
The 96-year-old inventor of the Heimlich manoeuvre had the occasion to use the technique himself to save a choking woman at his retirement home on Monday night.
According to staff at Deupree House in Cincinnati, Dr Henry Heimlich managed to dislodge a piece of hamburger from 87-year-old Patty Ris's airway.
It was said to be only the second time Dr Heimlich has needed to use the technique in an emergency.
He said it made him appreciate how wonderful it had been "to be able to save all those lives".
By the time staff rushed to the woman's aid as she choked, Dr Heimlich had already positioned himself to carry out his manoeuvre.
Since its introduction in 1974, the technique is believed to have saved the lives of over 100,000 people in the US alone.
President Ronald Reagan, pop star Cher and actors Jack Lemmon and Marlene Dietrich are among the people the technique has saved.
In 2014, actor Clint Eastwood saved a golf tournament director in California who was choking on a piece of cheese, using the technique.
Heimlich said Thursday, 26 May that he had demonstrated the well-known manoeuvre many times through the years but had never before used it on a person who was choking.
According to Heimlich he was having dinner when he looked over at the woman sitting next to him and could see that her face was growing pink and she was obviously choking.
"As soon as I did the Heimlich manoeuvre, a piece of meat with a bone in it immediately popped out," he said, AP reported.
Choking victim Ris said yesterday that she could not breathe and Heimlich rushed over to stand her up and dislodge the food.
"I definitely would have died right then and there," said Ris, who said she felt fine yesterday and had no after-effects. "There was no doubt about it."
Heimlich said in interviews yesterday that it was the first time he'd used his manoeuvre.
But the doctor said in at least one previous account, during an interview in 2003 with BBC News Online, that he had applied his emergency technique three years earlier.
