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Updated May 5, 2008

 What's the best way to rescue a choking victim? That depends on whom you ask....

The American Red Cross (ARC): Few people are aware that in 2006, the ARC made the first major change in choking rescue in 20 years. The Heimlich maneuver is no longer recommended as the first treatment response. The ARC now recommends first performing five back blows; if that doesn't remove the obstruction, proceed with five abdominal thrusts. (The ARC no longer uses the term "Heimlich maneuver.")

The American Heart Association (AHA): The AHA says they don't know which treatment is best - back blows, chest thrusts, or abdominal thrusts - but they recommend only abdominal thrusts even though their guidelines state that the treatment may result in "life threatening complications." (Columbus Dispatch, 11/5/06)

Meanwhile, Australia has dropped the Heimlich maneuver altogether and replaced it with chest thrusts.

Presumably the public is entitled to the best available lifesaving training, but what is it? And why so much confusion?

Interestingly, much of the responsibility for this mess falls squarely into the laps of two of America's medical icons (and longtime buddies), Henry J. Heimlich and former US Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop.

Click here to learn more....

        

One of these people is now running for an Ohio Congressional seat.
One of them just dropped out of the same race.

Two of them are senior editors at The New Republic.
One is married to a New Republic editor.

What do they know about AIDS experiments on African prostitutes and $9 million?

For more info, click their pics....
   
       


"These so-called medical experts. Screw 'em."

  
John Hunsucker PhD & Henry Heimlich MD                                                       photo source

Even after being tagged in this October 2007 Houston Press cover story, a Houston-area company continues to train lifeguards at "most of the major waterparks" around the US to perform the Heimlich maneuver on drowning victims, a treatment which has been universally discredited as useless and potentially deadly by the American Red Cross (source), the American Heart Association (source), the National Academy of Sciences (source), an international association of lifeguards (source), and every other legitimate drowning and water safety expert.

Here's what John Hunsucker, president of the lifeguard training company and a University of Houston professor told the Houston Press: "These so-called medical experts. Screw 'em."

 

 


Click Karen & Peter's photo to read Radar Magazine's article about how they exposed Dr. Heimlich's bizarre 50-year history of fraud

I've been investigating medical fraud and quackery for 25 years. Peter Heimlich and his wife Karen uncovered the biggest case I've ever seen - Robert S. Baratz MD PhD DDS, National Council Against Health Fraud

 

         
          Washington Post, 10/10/89                                                                                                       The HJ Heimlich Award for Innovative Medicine 

 

Outmaneuvered: How We Busted the Heimlich Medical Frauds
by Peter M. Heimlich

What's this website about?
Medical experts speak out against my father's history of misconduct
What medical & water safety experts say about Peter & Karen's work
ABC-TV investigative reports
Key news stories & documents by subject

What's this website about?

Why have I spoken out? Shouldn't the question be, why hasn't the medical profession spoken out more forcefully? (Minn. Star-Tribune, January 1, 2007)

I violated the real cardinal rule in my family. I told the truth (ABC 20/20, 6/8/07)

Perhaps the most challenging and personal question in this story is one which most people face in one form or another: When confronted with wrongdoing committed by a family member, how do we respond?

In Spring 2002, my wife Karen and I began researching the career of my father, Henry J. Heimlich MD of Cincinnati, famous for the Heimlich maneuver choking rescue method. Despite his celebrity - my father has been the subject of hundreds of TV and print stories - until we came along no one had ever done a thorough review of the man and his work.

To our astonishment, we inadvertently uncovered a wide-ranging, unseen 50-year history of fraud. Our research revealed my father to be a spectacular con man, undoubtedly one of history's most prolific - and destructive - medical humbugs. Armed with considerable charm, an instinct for public relations, and fueled by a ravenous need for attention and adulation, he used the media to pass himself off as a medical genius/inventor and humanitarian, eventually being crowned "America's most famous doctor" (The New Republic).

Our close examination of the facts revealed a parallel unseen history. For five decades, virtually uncriticized and unchecked, my father perpetrated a mind-boggling array of unethical and often illegal activities. Remarkably, he did so almost entirely in plain sight and in full view of his peers and the press. What resulted was the manipulation and corruption of the medical profession, his closest associates, and even some members of his own family.

First, it's unlikely my father even invented what came to be known as the Heimlich maneuver. At this writing, it appears likely he appropriated the idea from a colleague. If so, it wouldn't be the first time, as described in this front page Cincinnati Enquirer article, Heimlich Falsely Claims He Invented Surgical Procedure.

Regardless of who first thought of it, there's no question the Heimlich maneuver is an effective means of rescuing a choking victim. However, since my father introduced it in 1974, there's been on ongoing debate as to whether it's the most effective, safest treatment. My father also used a variety of dirty tricks to gain acceptance for the maneuver over other, perhaps better methods. Click here for more information.)

In any event, establishing the identity of who first conceived of the idea that an abdominal thrust may help dislodge a foreign body airway obstruction is certainly of interest, especially if "the Heimlich maneuver" wasn't the brainchild of Dr. Heimlich. But that's only a minor detail in a much more significant story, one which raises troubling, ongoing questions about the responsibility of the medical profession and the media; about why we come to believe what we believe; and about how individuals and organizations respond when a spectacular history of chicanery is exposed.

Facts prove that for 30 years, my father made up a string of crackpot medical treatments which he then relentlessly promoted by any means, including the fabrication of data and case reports. Based on his reputation for inventing a choking rescue treatment, the media enthusiastically and unquestioningly provided him with a platform to circulate these useless, potentially deadly quack treatments and to profit by fundraising on promises of "miracle cures." (Trained as a chest surgeon, my father stopped practicing medicine in 1976, when he was fired by Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati. Among other issues, he had a history of repeatedly fainting in the O.R. and on at least one occasion he walked out on a patient in mid-surgery.)

These "treatments" include the use of the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue, to stop asthma attacks, and to cure cystic fibrosis, theories which appear to be the result of delusional thinking. Then there's my father's weirdest, most audacious scam: "malariotherapy." Over three decades he has claimed that AIDS, cancer, and Lyme disease may be cured by infecting patients with malaria. During those years the nonprofit Heimlich Institute has funded and organize clandestine offshore human experiments on both American and Third World patients. Medical experts have compared this unsupervised, exploitative "research" to the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiments and Nazi concentration camp atrocities. (Coincidentally, my father, who has no training or expertise in immunology, bases his theory on the work an early 20th century psychiatrist, Julius Wagner Von Jauregg, who became a Nazi eugencist.)


Von Jauregg

My father's promotion of the Heimlich maneuver for drowning is equally horrifying. Our research uncovered that for 30 years he engineered what may be one of medical history's most diabolical and calamitous schemes. In order to "jump start" his idea, beginning in 1974, my father cooked up a string of phony cases in which drowning victims were allegedly rescued using the maneuver. Cronies - including several medical professionals - helped fake the cases. My father then used his media access to encourage the public to do the Heimlich maneuver on drowning victims. Recently two physicians wrote to my father and asked him to produce any substantive evidence to support his own case reports - he has none.

Meanwhile, every first aid organization and drowning expert warns that my father doesn't know anything about drowning and that doing the maneuver on drowning victims not only wastes precious rescue time, but may cause victims to vomit and aspirate. But people trusted the famous Dr. Heimlich and many followed his advice. The result of this folly? Dozens of documented serious injuries and deaths, including kids. Here are some of them:

Marquis Fuller (8 years old), St. Augustine, FL, 2004
Derrick Kelly (17 years old), Detroit, 2003
Danny Blanco (2-1/2 years old), Orland Park, IL, 2001
Angela Henley (18 years old), Kirksville, MO, 1998
Unnamed girl (3 years old), Orlando, FL, 1997
Unnamed boy (10 years old), Cleveland, OH, approx. 1979

In other words, my father and his cronies faked cases in order to promote a useless treatment which, when put into practice, were a proximate cause of the deaths of who knows how many people. What else can this be called but an atrocity?

When we uncovered the frauds, Karen and I realized that my father and others who promoted his sick theories were a menace. We had the choice to cross our fingers and hope no one else got hurt or killed, or we could do what we could to expose this madness.

First we filed thoroughly-documented complaints with a variety of medical oversight organizations, requesting that they investigate the frauds. Most refused to take action, so we took our information to the media. Since Spring 2003, when the Cincinnati Enquirer published two Sunday front page exposes, our research has been the basis for dozens of other print and TV reports (NY Times, LA Times, Reuters, etc.) Four have won journalism awards. Click here for links to some of those stories.

Despite this exposure, Deaconess Associations of Cincinnati and a handful of other organizations continue to promote my father's crackpot theories. Lucky for Deaconess, after the 2003 exposes, Enquirer editor Tom Callinan pulled the plug. In fact, while reporters all over the country have been reporting dozens of stories based on our research, mainstream media in the Queen City plays ostrich - they simply refuse to report critical stories about my father or my brother Phil Heimlich, a local politician.

Who is my brother Phil and what does he have to do with the medical frauds?

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Phil Heimlich at a Topeka, Kansas "Prayer Breakfast," describing how he had a religious epiphany "in 1981 at a Bob's Big Boy restaurant, where he accepted Christ as his savior" - (Topeka Capital-Journal, 11/15/03)

Until being knocked out of power in a November 2006 anti-corruption vote, during his 12 years as a local public official, Phil made his name on an anti-gay rights, anti-choice, anti-pornography, free market, "traditional family values" platform. (Our family may be many things - traditional isn't one of them!)

Phil's also the longtime vice president of the Deaconess-owned Heimlich Institute. According to a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter, the Heimlich Institute received $9 million in undeclared funding from gold mining companies to fund "Malariotherapy clinics" on African gold estates in which HIV+ African mine workers would be deliberately infected with malaria. The Heimlich Institute at Deaconess had already funded and supervised similar "research" in China. With a work force ravaged by AIDS, Africa's mining industry offered a bigger, more lucrative opportunity for exploitation, with even less oversight.

Hiding behind a Teflon media reputation, my father used to be able to get away with all sorts of crooked schemes. But in 2003, he encountered an unanticipated problem - me. Critical stories based on our research started appearing on the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer and other stories followed in which I spoke out against my father's frauds. That scrutiny might eventually lead to the $9 million being exposed. If so, my father and brother might be up to their necks in a variety of problems, including tax fraud.

What happened next wasn't pretty. My father, my brother Phil, my sister Janet Heimlich, Cincinnati press agent Robert Kraft and a couple of other creeps engaged in a "smear Peter" campaign. In an attempt to ruin my credibility, they began making false and defamatory statements to reporters and to others, claiming that I had "a history of mental problems" and similar lies. (Those with an interest in journalism ethics may be surprised to learn that Janet is a reporter for NPR and other news outlets.)

After a few years of being unjustly slimed, I contacted attorney Louis Sirkin, who agreed to help me. Sirkin is well-known First Amendment lawyer who has won important free speech cases, including the Robert Mapplethorpe case. Mr. Sirkin went after Phil, my father, Kraft, and others. Here are some of the letters Sirkin sent them. As reported in Cincinnati CityBeat, Phil made me a settlement offer which I rejected in lieu of an apology. I'm still waiting. As for the others, apparently they've finally stopped telling lies about me.

As it happens, when it comes to being a target of my father's abusive conduct, I'm in excellent company. Throughout his career, he engaged in similar underhanded tactics, trying to ruin some of the world's leading medical experts simply because they disagreed with his conclusions. Click here for some examples.

During all these years, the only contact from my family has been a few e-mails from my sister Elisabeth and some bizarre, vaguely-threatening letters from my father. The last time we saw any of them was October 2001 in Cincinnati. Karen and I went there after learning about serious family medical problems which had been kept secret from us. My father had enabled the problems and failed to seek adequate treatment. When I confronted him, he denied everything and refused to answer questions. When we called my brother Phil and my sister Janet to enlist their help, they hung up on us.

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Jane & Henry Heimlich, Cincinnati Magazine, 6/91                             Click cover for more                         

And that's what led us to start researching my father's career; their behavior was so suspicious I wanted to know what they were hiding. Since my family wouldn't give us any answers, we started making calls and asking questions. My father's famous, so we began pulling articles and every other document we could locate. Long story short, what started as a search for answers to questions about family issues quickly turned into an in-depth research project into my father's work.

Eventually our efforts resulted in scores of TV and print stories, exposing 50 years of medical and other frauds involving my father and others. As we learned, there's no manual for whistleblowers, especially when it comes to exposing crimes involving your own family. It was a wild five-year ride, one in which we had to stand up to the medical profession, the media, and my own family - some of whom have some explaining to do.

We finally succeeded at bringing out the truth about the frauds, but questions still need to be answered. Over the past 30 years, how many lives were lost as a result of my father's mad ideas? What responsibility for those deaths falls on his cronies, like those who engineered the fake drownings?

       
Robert Kraft                   Dan Pinger

What about the conduct of Cincinnati press agent Robert Kraft and his former boss, Dan Pinger? While Karen and I were struggling to expose the medical frauds - hoping to prevent more kids from being hurt or killed - Kraft was being paid by my father to promote his medical quackery and to suppress our efforts. For years, Kraft knowingly lied to reporters, hinting that I was "unstable" and portraying me as a kook. This slimy behavior - which violates the code of ethics established by the Public Relations Society of America of which both Kraft & Pinger are members - went on for several years. Not once did they ever tried to contact me or Karen - they just cashed the checks and did my father's dirty work while he kept his hands clean. Finally it got so bad that my attorney Louis Sirkin had to intervene. That appears to have finally muzzled them.

What's the latest? Until he threw in the towel in late January, my brother Phil was hoping to become the Republican nominee in the 2008 Ohio 2nd Congressional District. Meanwhile the leading Democrat in the same race is Dr. Victoria Wulsin. As it happens, in an unlikely twist of political fate, Dr. Wulsin used to work for the Heimlich Institute developing the Africa "Malariotherapy" project. In other words, my brother was Dr. Wulsin's boss and both participated in unethical, unsupervised, clandestine human experiments on impoverished African AIDS patients. Published information also connects the following players to the Africa experiments: Deaconess Associations of Cincinnati, the Episcopal Church, a Rotary International executive, a Denver gold mining trade group, and the wife of a senior editor at the New Republic magazine. For more, read Ohio Congressional Race Makes Strange Bedfellows.

As for my father, over the years he drifted from legitimate medicine and fell into the welcoming arms of the so-called "alternative health" community where he gives speeches to organizations like the "Northwest Naturopathic Physicians Convention" and to "anti-aging medicine" hucksters and the like. (My mother Jane Heimlich, who wrote two quack medical books, apparently guided him into that community.)

As for the inventive media hustling by which he made his name, my father now avoids any reporters who ask serious questions. But he's in good health and still gives softball interviews, such as this September 14, 2007 appearance hosted by WET, Cincinnati's public television station.

The Heimlich story keeps developing and new information is always welcome. Click here to contact us - PMH

 

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                      Elisabeth Heimlich @1999

When they were married in 1988, Peter Heimlich & Karen Shulman founded Global Village Imports, a wholesale textile design and import company which they continue to run. Before then, Karen founded and operated a jewelry business, and Peter was a rock & roller. (Here's a video of heavy metal hottie Lita Ford performing one of Peter's tunes.) Karen was an English major and got her BS from UMass Amherst in 1984. Peter got his BS from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Journalism in 1977. During his college years, Peter was a freelance writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer and other papers, and won the Hearst National Journalism Award. They live in suburban Atlanta.

Thanks and good fortune to friends, known and unknown, who helped along the way.

Admiration and special thanks to Pamela Mills-Senn and the late Dr. Joseph S. Redding, who smelled a rat and weren't afraid to be the first to say so - P&K

 

 

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Medical experts speak out against my father's history of misconduct

(Henry Heimlich's career) is the biggest case of scientific fraud I've ever seen. The longest, the biggest and the most far-reaching, without a doubt...His ideas are insane. Some of his ideas are delusional. He has been experimenting on human beings for most of his career, and he's no different than the Nazi experimenters. There isn't one iota of scientific basis for this except that Heimlich said so - Robert S. Baratz MD PhD DDS, National Council Against Health Fraud (Portland Tribune, April 13, 2007)

Dr. Heimlich continues to distort, misquote, fabricate, and mislead his peers and the public regarding the scientific "evidence" supporting the safety and efficacy of his (drowning) theory. Dr. Heimlich's "evidence" consists of unsubstantiated, poorly documented anecdotes. He cites letters to the editor (published in the Journal of the American Medical Association) as though they represented rigorous scientific study - Joseph P. Ornato MD, Medical College of Virginia, in an August 1992 letter to the American Red Cross (Cincinnati Enquirer, May 10, 1993)

Heimlich overpowered science all along the way with his slick tactics and intimidation, and everyone, including us at the AHA caved in - American Heart Association consultant Roger D. White MD, Mayo Clinic (Cincinnati Magazine, April 2007)

It's so repugnant to me the way Dr. Heimlich has bullied..He's a bully and he has bullied people into submission - .Charles W. Guildner MD (ret), former consultant, American Heart Association (KUOW Public Radio, 12/3/07)

 

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What medical & water safety experts say about Peter & Karen's work

Your crusade is a major plus for medicine and for the American public. So, as a member of both communities, I thank you - Alan Steinman MD MPH, Rear Admiral (ret.) US Coast Guard, author, Ship's Medicine Chest and Medical Aid at Sea 2003, the Coast Guard's water safety manual

Peter Heimlich's relentless and successful effort to expose the truth has been an inspiration to lifesavers everywhere - B. Chris Brewster, President, US Lifesaving Association

Peter Heimlich has worked tirelessly to uncover a fascinating, yet little known chapter of medical history, one with as much human intrigue as you would expect from a John LeCarre novel - Charles W. Guildner MD (ret), former consultant, American Heart Association

I've been investigating medical fraud and quackery for 25 years. Peter Heimlich and his wife Karen uncovered the biggest case I've ever seen - Robert Baratz MD PhD DDS, National Council Against Health Fraud

 

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ABC-TV investigative reports

JUNE 8, 2007
ABC 20/20, Brian Ross reports: Is Dr. Heimlich Really a Savior? (video)
Includes interviews with Anthony S. Fauci MD, Peter Rosen MD, Peter Heimlich, and Phil Heimlich
The Blotter (ABC News blog): Dr. Heimlich's New 'Maneuver': Cure AIDS With Malaria
Back story interview by Brian Ross with producer Joseph Rhee

JULY 18, 2007
ABC News, The Blotter: Heimlich's Son Pushes to Discredit Famous Dad by JR Santo
Dr. Henry Heimlich's name has been dropped from a prestigious humanitarian award following intense criticism of Dr. Heimlich's activities in recent years raised by his own son...A recent 20/20 investigation detailed Dr. Heimlich's attempts to promote the use of his maneuver on near drowning victims and cystic fibrosis patients, which leading medical experts say is either useless or potentially dangerous.

NOVEMBER 17, 2006
ABC Chicago, The Maneuver, by Emmy-winning investigative reporter Chuck Goudie
VIDEO TEXT The I-Team visited the impressive-sounding Heimlich Institute, which exists to promote Heimlich and his maneuver, on the accounting floor of a Cincinnati office. We found the office, with no one in it, the phone answered by a machine.

NOVEMBER 15-16, 2005
ABC Kirksville, MO, Drowning: To Heimlich of Not?, by Zach Brown
Part I: Video - Text "There isn't a single piece of scientific evidence that shows the Heimlich Maneuver actually worked to save the life of a drowning victim."
Part II: Video - Text The death of Angela Henley.

 


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Key news stories & documents arranged by subject

A. "Malariotherapy"
B. Heimlich maneuver for drowning frauds
    1. Organizations and individuals advocating the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue
    2. Suspect drowning rescue cases involving the Heimlich maneuver
C. Heimlich maneuver for choking frauds
D. Heimlich maneuver for asthma fraud
E. False claim of inventing esophagus replacement operation
F. Henry and Phil Heimlich's relationships with narco doctors
G. Who is Dr. Edward A. Patrick?
    1. Edward A. Patrick's claimed 1975-76 Jewish Hospital residency
    2. The Patrick - or Fattu - Maneuver?
H. Tall tales & fabrications
I. Prominent supporters of Dr. Henry Heimlich's work

Addenda:
    1. Is it ethical for a press agent to circulate dangerous medical advice?
    2. Unreported & under-reported Heimlich stories

 

 

Back to Key news stories and documents arranged by subject

A."Malariotherapy"

 

 

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B. Heimlich maneuver for near-drowning frauds

 

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1. ORGANIZATIONS & INDIVIDUALS ADVOCATING THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER FOR DROWNING RESCUE

(NASCO) works with as many as 80 waterparks and 50 community pool facilities per season. Hunsucker counts most of the major waterparks among his clientele. (Aquatics International, February 2006)

Fighting for Air: Drowning and the Heimlich Maneuver by Todd Spivak, Houston Press, October 11, 2007 (cover story) - Most doctors say the Heimlich maneuver should not be used to save drowning victims. So why does University of Houston professor John Hunsucker continue to teach it to lifeguards?

                           
                       Click cover image for more                                Click cover image to read forward by Jane Heimlich

 

 

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2. SUSPECT DROWNING RESCUE CASES INVOLVING THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER

When asked by doctors or reporters to provide any substantiating details for these and other cases, Dr. Heimlich, his press agent Robert Kraft, and Deaconess Associations have failed or refused to provide any supporting evidence.

Have you ever been boating and happened upon a near-dead floating body? Maryland RN Denise Schmitt says she did one day on Chesapeake Bay. Schmitt claims that while pulling the lifeless body out of the drink, her husband Russell "inadvertently" performed a series of Heimlich , causing the victim to expel a considerable volume of water. She claims this resulted in the near-dead victim immediately regaining consciousness and speaking: "I saw death!"

Nurse Schmitt then describes how the victim was taken to the ICU at "the local hospital." As it happens, the hospital was Anne Arundel Medical Center, where Ms. Schmitt works, but for some reason she chose not to identify that detail in her article. Nurse Schmidt has also refused to provide the name of the attending physician on the case. Interestingly, much of her article bears a striking resemblance to articles by my father, Dr. Henry Heimlich, with whom she has been in contact.

Ms. Schmitt's dramatic tale first turned up in "Boaters Rescue Drowning Man" by Rose Spik, The Bay Times, September 1, 1999, where the victim is identified as local resident Billy Lindner, who a couple years earlier had been in an auto accident "that left him with severe nerve damage, fracturing nearly every bone in his head." What was a severely-crippled man doing floating out alone in the bay? Mr. Lindner has refused to respond to repeated inquiries. It would certainly be interesting to know what happened to the boat that brought him out there, who was operating it, and why they abandoned him. In fact, doing so might be a criminal act, one which Mr. Lindner and Ms. Schmidt could have reported to the authorities.

In any event, Ms. Schmitt says the episode "was like a well-rehearsed scene in a movie."

Here's a March 13, 2007 voice message from Ms. Schmitt to me in which she states, "I know your father is a fraud and a liar and that's why I asked to distance myself from him."

 

 

 

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C. Heimlich maneuver choking frauds

  • The Yale "Anti-Backblows Study & the Dysphagia Foundation A research study which was influential in changing national choking rescue guidelines in favor of the Heimlich maneuver was clandestinely funded by Dr. Heimlich. He and the author of the study, the late Richard L. Day MD, did not disclose this fact to the 1985 American Heart Association committee at which the study was presented. Drs. Heimlich & Day also neglected to reveal to the committee that they were personal friends who had been in close touch before, during, and after the study was completed.
  • Dr. Heimlich's Secretary and the Planted "Choking Death" Letters
  • Did US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Manipulate National First Aid Guidelines as a Buddy Favor?

September 30, 1985, Koop issues Public Health Statement advocating the Heimlich maneuver for choking over all other methods; calls backblows and chest thrusts "hazardous, even lethal."

From October 2, 1985, Heimlich Maneuver Endorsed by Christine Russell, The Washington Post:
"Dr. Koop and Dr. Heimlich are not giving the process quite the chance it deserves," responded Red Cross senior vice president Dr. Lewellys Barker. Koop said in an interview that he felt the need to act more quickly after receiving letters from Heimlich and University of Cincinnati professor Edward A. Patrick, as well as his knowledge of the value of the procedure. "I felt that I couldn't stand around and wait." Patrick, who has performed research showing that the back slap can drive a foreign object downward, complained to Koop that the "lives of many Americans are endangered as the result of Red Cross first aid instruction" and said "it is urgent that you inform the public through the media of the back slap danger."

From September 19, 1985 letter from Koop to Dr. Edward A. Patrick:
(I wanted) to inform you that I had taken some action in reference to the Heimlich maneuver versus backslapping. I issued a press release on the matter several weeks ago (a copy of which was mailed to you). There will be a discussion of the matter in my monthly column which appears in weekly newspapers throughout the country. Also, the matter will be discussed in an editorial in the next issue of Public Health Reports. I called Henry's Office, found he was in New York, but left a message.

From a December 13, 2002 letter from Koop (available to the media on request):
I was a friend of Henry Heimlich for a long time before 1985, but that had nothing to do with my taking a position....

From Maneuvering Over Heimlich by Lenore Skenazy, New York Sun, February 21, 2007:
Back blows are "death blows," Dr. Heimlich declared long and loud as he lobbied for his maneuver's acceptance 30 years ago. In 1985, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop endorsed this view, dubbing backslaps "hazardous."...Peter Heimlich (says) "Koop was an old friend of my father's, and he did it as a buddy favor."

 

 

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D. Heimlich maneuver for asthma fraud

Loren Greenway, administrative director of respiratory and pulmonary medicine for Intermountain Health Care, and a nationally certified asthma educator, finds Heimlich’s asthma maneuver physiologically unfounded and dangerous. “Using the Heimlich maneuver in an acute asthmatic condition ... could actually kill somebody,” said Greenway, adding that asthma-treatment medications are necessary and safe in treating the underlying inflammation that causes mucous buildup, and that a Heimlich Maneuver could not possibly affect the inflammation. As to the claims made on Heimlich’s Website and elsewhere, Greenway said that “without the data to prove it, there is no more egregious kind of statement that can be made than ‘If you use this, your asthma will go away or get better.’ In my opinion, it’s tantamount to malpractice. I think it would be laughable if it was presented at an internationally renowned conference.”

"The Heimlich maneuver will stop an asthma attack," said (Dr.) Heimlich. Heimlich also urges the maneuver be used on cystic fibrosis victims, all claims that have stunned the medical community and major medical organizations, which warn that the use of the Heimlich maneuver in those situations could be fatal. The American Lung Association asked Chicago respiratory expert Dr. John Shannon to speak with us. "It shouldn't be used at all in asthma in cystic fibrosis or any chronic inflation disorder in the lung passages," said Dr. John Shannon, Stroger Cook County Hospital ."There is a good possibility of making a person with asthma substantially worse."

 

 

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E. False claim of inventing esophagus surgery ("The Heimlich Operation")

 

 

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F. Henry and Phil Heimlich's relationships with narco doctors

My Father & Brother's History with Narco Doctors: Gerson Carr, Ryan Krebs, and Milton Uhley Dr. Henry Heimlich & Phil Heimlich's close relationships with at least three physicians who lost their licenses for excessive prescribing of narcotics, one of whom he helped parole from prison after several patients died of overdoses while in his care. Another, Phil Heimlich's best friend, served five years in federal prison in a massive federal drug sting.

 

                                                                                                              

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Click photos for Heimlich-Patrick time line and more pics

G. Who is Dr. Edward A. Patrick?

1. Edward A. Patrick's claimed 1975-76 Jewish Hospital residency

 


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2. The Patrick - or Fattu - Maneuver?

 

 

 

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H. Tall tales & fabrications

In 1993, I visited Vietnam with a group of surgeons participating in the program "People-to-People Ambassadors," who were meeting at the Hanoi Airport with Vietnamese colleagues. When he introduced me, the head Vietnamese surgeon said, "Oh, Dr. Heimlich, everyone in Vietnam knows your name." Naturally, I thought he was referring to the Maneuver. Then he said, "The Heimlich Chest Drain Valve saved tens of thousands of our people during the war. The American Friends Service Society (Quakers) kept us supplied with Heimlich Valves." After that, each meeting was opened by the chairperson saying, "Dr. Heimlich will live in the hearts of the Vietnamese people forever." Knowing the Valve had saved lives on both sides of that destructive war was one of the greatest moments in my life. (Henry Heimlich MD, Heimlich Institute website)

Haunted by the image of a Chinese soldier who died on the operating table after being shot in the chest in 1945 Dr Heimlich developed a valve to drain blood and air out of the chest cavity. The device was given to soldiers to carry with them in case they got shot in the chest and the Quakers supplied the devices to the Vietnamese. "The most moving thing in my life was in 1993 when I went to Vietnam with 25 chest surgeons. I was introduced as 'Dr Heimlich, whose name is known by everyone'. "I thought it was because of the Heimlich Manoeuvre, but then the man introducing me said it was because of the chest drain valve which saved tens of thousands of lives in Vietnam. "The Quakers had kept them supplied with the valves. "He said 'Dr Heimlich, you live in the hearts of the Vietnamese people". (Heimlich: Still saving lives at 83 by Jane Elliott, BBC News, 3/9/03)

Story as told by HJH in video segment from "Northwest Naturopathic Physicians Convention" speech, April 20, 2007)

From Outmaneuvered by Thomas Francis, Radar Magazine, 11/10/05:

According to Heimlich's press statements the (Heimlich chest valve) saved tens of thousands of lives, including among the North Vietnamese, after the American Friends Service Committee shipped valves to both sides in the war. Henry often tells the story of a trip to Vietnam during which he received a hero's welcome because of his valve. But the Quakers have no record of distributing the valve. Peter contacted the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker group that provides aid in foreign conflicts. "They checked deep in the archives and contacted several staffers from the '60s," says Peter. "No one had even heard of the Heimlich valve." AFSC spokeswoman Janis Shields says that if the valves had been shipped to North Vietnam, there would have been documents. The AFSC's shipments to North Vietnam consisted primarily of penicillin.

 


                                                                                                                    

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I. Supporters of Dr. Henry Heimlich

Dr. Heimlich has dedicated his life to researching and treating some of the world's biggest medical problems. From helping victims of chest trauma to working to boost immune systems in the fight against AIDS, Dr. Heimlich has been at the forefront of medical research and treatment. He has chosen to make Cincinnati his home, and we are better for it....Dr. Heimlich is a caring, committed and courageous humanitarian. He deserves to be treated with respect.

John M. Tew, MD University of Cincinnati
Creighton B. Wright, MD
Kevin D. Martin, MD
Ronald Sacher, MD University of Cincinnati, Director, Hoxworth Blood Center
John J. Larkin, MD
Louis Brockmeier, MD
Charles Pierce, MD PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati

 

 

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Addenda

 
Robert Kraft

1. Is it ethical for a press agent to circulate dangerous medical advice?

For years, Cincinnati press agent Robert Kraft has been paid to promote my father's crackpot medical theories, theories which have been associated with serious injuries and deaths, including many children. A former reporter and editor whose last newspaper job ended abruptly in 2001, Kraft ended up working for Dan Pinger Public Relations and is currently at another Cincinnati PR shop, the Powers Agency. (According to Jason Zengerle of The New Republic, Kraft also promotes car shows.)

In other words, a press agent with no medical training has been promoting quack medical advice which has been widely discredited and associated with resulting in serious injuries and deaths, including many children.

Here's a modest sample of Kraft's efforts:

"Malariatherapy was a popular practice through much of the 20th century, said Bob Kraft, spokesman for Henry Heimlich. Before the discovery of penicillin, it was used as a cure for syphilis. In 1927, Julius Wagner von Jauregg won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his work with malariatherapy." (Source)

Personally, I think the most effective case that can be made for the maneuver for drowning is the experience of the Ellis lifeguard organization between 1995-2000. (And yes, I know that they have since changed the protocol. Why? Dunno. Ask them.) Ellis lifeguards performed the Heimlich maneuver on 152 UNCONSCIOUS, NON-BREATHING drowning victims in that period. 147 recovered (I think without any further therapy, but ask me to double-check that number if you want to print it.)...I've talked to a handful of these lifeguards who have saved drowning victims with the maneuver. They offer compelling testimonials. Peter (Heimlich) would have you believe that Dr. Heimlich stands alone against a medical establishment that has closed ranks against him. Not true. Dr. Neal Barnard, the director of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has endorsed the maneuver for drowning, as has Dr. Harry Gibbons, the former safety director in Salt Lake City and a pioneering figure in his field. The National Aquatic Safety Company, one of the largest trainers of lifeguards in the country, teaches the maneuver as the first part of the rescue protocol. (6/9/05 e-mail from Robert Kraft to Jason Haap, Cincinnati Beacon)

"Heimlich believes that his maneuver gets water out of the lungs, which is what you need to do before you can effectively start CPR," says Bob Kraft a spokesman for the Heimlich Institute.."There are people that disagree, and that’s the extent of debate as I see it." (Source)

Per this letter published in the August 25, 2005 Boston Herald in which he identifies himself as the Heimlich Institute's Communications Director, Kraft has been doing this work under the auspices of Deaconess Associations which owns the institute:

In Defense of Heimlich

Dr. Henry Heimlich developed the Heimlich Maneuver for choking in 1973. Choking was the sixth-largest cause of accidental death in America, costing nearly 5,000 lives annually. After testing his theory on anesthetized dogs, Heimlich published his findings in June 1974. The maneuver has saved many thousands of lives.

The Herald story ("BU doc finds Heimlich's role in maneuver hard to swallow," Aug. 21) asserts questions have been raised about the origin of the Heimlich Maneuver. In fact, no such questions have been raised. False allegations have been made by an estranged son, mostly under the cover of pseudonyms. He has apparently found an ally in Dr. Robert Baratz, although your story failed to establish whether Baratz's so-called "watchdog" group has credentials.

Heimlich and his family are saddened by the estrangement from their son, but they also feel it's important to correct the record

- Robert Kraft, Communications Director, Heimlich Institute, Cincinnati

 

 

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2. Unreported & under-reported Heimlich stories

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS REPLACES THE Heimlich MANEUVER AS THE FIRST TREATMENT FOR CHOKING So why haven't you heard about it?

WHY IS A $250 MILLION/YEAR CINCINNATI HOSPITAL CORPORATION PROMOTING DANGEROUS QUACKERY THAN CAN KILL PEOPLE? Every legitimate medical authority agrees that my father's crackpot theories are dangerous quackery that could kill people. So why is Deaconess Associations, which wholly owns and controls the Heimlich Institute, promoting the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue, to stop asthma attacks, and to cure cystic fibrosis? What is Deaconess's role in the Heimlich Institute's violative human experiments on HIV+ African prostitutes?

DID US SURGEON GENERAL C. EVERETT KOOP MANIPULATE NATIONAL FIRST AID GUIDELINES AS A "BUDDY FAVOR"? Back blows are "death blows," Dr. Heimlich declared long and loud as he lobbied for his maneuver's acceptance 30 years ago. In 1985, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop endorsed this view, dubbing backslaps "hazardous."...Peter Heimlich (says) "Koop was an old friend of my father's, and he did it as a buddy favor." (NY Sun, February 21, 2007) Why has Dr. Koop, who now presides over Dartmouth's Koop Institute, refused to speak about this to reporters from ABC News and the New Yorker?

BANKERS CLUB 2001 - DR. Heimlich TO THE RESCUE? My father fabricated a story that he saved a choking victim in a Cincinnati restaurant using the Heimlich maneuver. The tale was published by the New Yorker, the BBC, and the Chicago Sun-Times.

WHY IS CINCINNATI MAINSTREAM MEDIA AVOIDING THE Heimlich STORIES?

 

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Copyright @ 2008 Peter M. Heimlich, all rights reserved. Click here to report broken links or to contact the author.

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