Heimlich told NBC News he immediately recognized that the 87-year-old woman was choking.
Advertisement
Dr Heimlich described how he turned the woman, Patty Ris, around in her chair so her back was exposed. Heimlich said Thursday, May 26, 2016 that he has demonstrated the well-known maneuver many times through the years but had never before used it on a person who was choking. In one interview, he said he helped a man at the former private dining club, the Banker’s Club, in Downtown Cincinnati in 2001.
The Heimlich Maneuver has saved an estimated 50,000 U.S. lives and many, many more worldwide.
“I sort of felt wonderful about it, just having saved that girl”, Heimlich said.
A staff member at the home in OH said residents went back to dining after Heimlich’s life-saving maneuver. “Of all things, I knew she was choking”.
“I knew about all the lives my manoeuvre has saved over the years and I have demonstrated it so many times but here, for the first time, was someone sitting right next to me who was about to die”. “I saw her face was all stiffened up and her skin was turning dark and she could not speak”, he said.
Ms Ris said that after regaining her breath Dr Heimlich explained to her what he had done.
Gaines said the entire room, filled with 125 diners, focused on the table, which was near the center of the room. On Monday – as the 96-year-old enjoyed a meal in the Deupree House dining room – a chance to put the maneuver into action finally materialized.
“When I wrote my thank-you note to him for saving my life, I said, ‘God put me in that seat right next to you, Dr. Heimlich, so you could save my life.’ Because I was gone”.
Choking is America’s fourth leading cause of accidental death.
The Heimlich maneuver has been adopted over the world as the standard response to a choking victim.
Advertisement
The manoeuvre is a technique of abdominal thrust to dislodge an object stuck inside a person’s throat.
