It’s saved more than 50,000 lives in the United States alone, according to Heimlich’s educational institute.
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Dr. Henry Heimlich, the 96-year-old Cincinnati surgeon credited with inventing the lifesaving technique named for him, used it for the first time this week to save a fellow senior center resident who was choking on a hamburger.
In a surprising twist it turns out that, while Heimlich has demonstrated the life-saving method that he invented decades ago numerous times, he had never actually performed it on a choking victim until now.
Dr Heimlich said was having dinner with eight or nine others at the Deupree House retirement home in Cincinnati when he turned to talk to a woman at his table and noticed she was choking. Then, Heimlich pressed three times, and Patty Gill Ris, 87, coughed out a piece of her hamburger.
“I never thought that I would be saving someone’s life by doing the Heimlich maneuver”, Heimlich said, describing the incident as “very moving”.
“She told me how wonderful and fortunate she felt”, Heimlich added.
Heimlich’s son agreed it was the first time he had used the maneuver.
The task would normally have fallen to a staff member to handle, but “it is Dr. Heimlich”, a maître d’ for the facility’s dining room told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “But”, Gaines said, pausing, “it is Dr. Heimlich”.
People who have been saved by the technique include: former President Ronald Reagan, pop star Cher, former NY mayor Edward Koch and Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, Carrie Fisher, Jack Lemmon and Marlene Dietrich.
“I just realized, I’ve got to go over and save her”, he said. “I just felt a satisfaction”, said Heimlich, who has lived in the 120-apartment complex for six years and swims regularly for exercise. “The whole dining room, you hear a needle drop”.
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In a video given to the Enquirer, Ris said she wrote Heimlich a thank you note that read, “God put me in this seat next to you”. “Because I was gone”.
