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Updated July
15, 2010
Why were
backblows eliminated from US choking rescue guidelines in 1986,
then reinstated 20 years later? "Slick
tactics, intimidation" and sausage-making: a brief history
of US choking rescue guidelines...and will chest thrusts replace
the Heimlich maneuver?
News reports about
the 2006 American Red Cross choking guidelines update, alphabetized
by state
compiled by Peter
M. Heimlich
National
& International News Outlets
November 13, 2006 - Basics
of First Aid: What to Do Until Medical Help Arrives, Voice
of America News,
May 26, 2008 - Learning
First Aid: What to Do Until You Reach Medical Help, Voice
of America (Special English News),
July 18, 2007 - Heimlich's
Son Pushes to Discredit Famous Dad by JR Santo, ABC News,
The Blotter
In another significant setback,
the use of the Heimlich maneuver on choking victims has been
quietly downgraded by the American Red Cross. In new guidelines,
the Red Cross recommends a series of five back slaps as the first
course of action, followed by five Heimlich maneuver thrusts...Dr.
Heimlich refused to speak to ABC News..."Every study in
this shows that back slaps drive the food deeper and do not save
lives, that only the Heimlich maneuver saves lives," eldest
son Phil Heimlich told ABC News on behalf of his father. At the
1985 Red Cross and AHA conference, however, only one study was
cited that showed back slaps can be dangerous when used on choking
victims. That study had been funded by Dr. Heimlich through an
institution called the Dysphagia Foundation Inc., which was later
renamed The Heimlich Institute....
May 13, 2010 - To
Your Good Health by Paul G. Donohue MD, King Features
syndicated column
July 13, 2010 - CPR:
Lifesaving training you hope you’ll never have to use
by Kristen Gerencher, MarketWatch (Wall Street Journal)
(The) Heimlich maneuver for
choking is now the more generic and widely understood “abdominal
thrusts”...We learned what to do if an adult starts choking
and can no longer talk, cough or breathe. For conscious victims,
delivering five separate but not-too-forceful back blows between
the shoulder blades and then, if needed, an equal number of abdominal
thrusts can help dislodge the item. The abdominal thrusts turned
out to be more like a series of squeezes than the violent-looking
jolts that are often portrayed on TV.
Alabama
February 24,
2010 - City
and county workers learn CPR by Laura Fenton, Selma Times-Journal
Arkansas
June 19, 2008
- Hold
That Heimlich,
Arkansas Times
California
March 9, 2008 - Hundreds
Take Time to Learn CPR at Free Red Cross Class by John
Driscoll, The Eureka Times-Standard
September 9, 2008 - How
to help a co-worker in a medical crisis by R.J. Ignelzi
San Diego Union Tribune
June 19, 2010 - Doctor
advises how to help a choking victim, Fremont Tribune
Colorado
February 21,
2010 - Sky-Hi Daily News, Grand County, Know
the ABC of emergency first aid by Eric Murray
Connecticut
October 23, 2006 - New Haven
Register, Red
Cross Reverses Policy on Choking Aid by Abram Katz
April 10, 2007 - Red
Cross Deviates from Heimlich Maneuver by Anne Pallivathuckal,
Journal Inquirer
(Peter Heimlich) says that
the Heimlich maneuver works, but "the question is whether
it is the best method." Peter contends that the maneuver
gained widespread prominence because of his father's media blitz,
even while other methods were found to be more effective. Peter
cites the work of Charles Guildner, a doctor who studied chest
thrusts as a method for rescuing choking victims in the mid-1970s.
Guildner did a series of tests to compare the effectiveness of
using abdominal thrusts versus chest thrusts by measuring airflow.
His findings showed that chest thrusts were more effective. A
more recent study in Norway that tested the effectiveness of
chest thrusts using cadavers replicated Guildner's findings,
Peter says. The AHA in its journal, "Circulation",
cites this study, in which randomized trial maneuvers to open
the airway in cadavers was tested. The AHA journal also mentions
other studies that show that higher sustained airway pressures
can be generated using the chest thrust rather than the abdominal
thrust.
February 7,
2010 - To
thrust, or not to thrust? Debate over whether Heimlich maneuver
should be the first response for choking by Lisa Chamoff, Greenwich
Time
In recent
years, stories have recounted years of lobbying by the maneuver's
namesake to bring it into prominence as the response to choking.
Heimlich -- who turned 80 on Wednesday -- famously declared that
back blows were "death blows." Those stories were unearthed
by Henry Heimlich's son, Peter. His Web site, medfraud.info,
recounts how his father allegedly "engaged in a variety
of dirty tricks such as using his secretary to send threat letters
under an alias and clandestinely funding a Yale research study
which allegedly proved back blows were dangerous." During
a recent phone interview, Heimlich declined to comment on how
he came to call his father duplicitous, saying he "discovered
a fascinating, unseen history of how the Heimlich maneuver came
to be a household word." "Science marches on,"
Heimlich said. "There's been a 30-year scientific debate,
not whether the Heimlich maneuver works, which it does for choking,
but whether it is the best method."
Florida
September
11, 2008 - Heimlich
Maneuvering
by Tim Collie, Miami New Times
Hawaii
May 13, 2010 - Kauai
boy saves choking father by Manolo Morales, KHON2-TV
Illinois
September 24, 2006 - Joliet
Herald News, Choking
Victims: Debate Over Lifesaving - Groups differ in controversy
over backblows
While the Red Cross and American
Heart Association still say the Heimlich maneuver, or "abdominal
thrusts" as it's called, is the foremost way to help somebody
who is choking, they take varying stands on whether back blows
also should be given. The heart association favors the no-back-blow
argument, saying that it's easier to simply teach one method.
But under new rules taught in rescue courses this summer, the
American Red Cross officially says yes to the back blow debate.
The group says a rescuer should first use back blows, and then
move to the Heimlich maneuver to help a choking person. But even
the Red Cross itself seems to be on two different pages with
the new rules.
November 16-17, 2006 - ABC7
Chicago I-Team Special Report, The
Maneuver by Chuck Goudie
December 20,
2006 - SuperStation WGN-TV, Chicago, Heimlich
Maneuver Now 2nd Choice for Choking Rescue
Indiana
September 15, 2006 - WNDU-TV,
South Bend, Guidelines
for Saving Choking Victims Have Changed by Kari Huston
October 6, 2009 - South Bend
Tribune, Rescue
from choking - Advice varies a bit but includes abdominal thrusts
for most people by Joseph Dits
Iowa
August 1, 2007 - Learning
the Basics by Melissa Regennitter, Muscatine Journal
Kansas
April 4,
2009 - Giving
Aid by Bobbie Mylnar, The
Emporia Gazette
Kentucky
August 22, 2007 - Choking
Response Had All the Right Rescue Moves by Tom Dekle,
The Kentucky Standard (Bardstown)
Louisiana
June 29, 2009
- Dealing
with diet and diverticulitis problems by Dr. P. Donohue (p2), The Town
Talk (Central Louisiana)
Maine
February 1, 2007 - Ellsworth
American - What
Is the Best Way to Help Choking Victims? by James Straub
Maryland
October 12, 2006 - Cecil Whig,
Red
Cross Expands Choking Treatment by Jane Weaver
March 27,
2007 - Cecil Whig, Woman
Claims Pet Pooch (Toby) Gave Her the Heimlich by Scott Goss
As strange
as (Debbie) Parkhursts story might sound, Toby's actions actually
followed the emergency measures recommended for choking victims
by the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross.
Both agencies recommend first aid responders use a series of
five back blows followed by a series of five abdominal thrusts,
otherwise known as the five and five.
March 29,
2007 - WJZ (CBS-TV, Baltimore) Dog's
Life-Saving Heimlich Contradicts Red Cross by Jessica Kartalija
Michigan
December 12, 2006 - The Grand
Rapids Press, Backslaps
Dislodge Heimlich Maneuver Here by Paul R. Kopenkoskey
"As a choking rescue
treatment, it (the Heimlich maneuver) is effective saving thousands
of lives," acknowledged Peter Heimlich, owner of a wholesale
fabric business in Atlanta. "That's not my beef. "The
serious question is, is it the best rescue treatment for choking?
The back blows are less invasive. They're not going to hurt anybody.
Abdominal thrusts, aka the Heimlich maneuver, can break a rib,
damage internal organs." Peter Heimlich accuses his famous
father of a 10-year misinformation campaign, touting his method
while maligning back blows as death blows. "In Europe, they've
been teaching back blows followed by abdominal thrust for 30
years," said Peter Heimlich. "They never heard about
it killing people. No one is being sued like mad."
Reached at his home in Cincinnati
last week, Heimlich, 87, referred questions to his spokesman,
Robert Kraft. "Dr. Heimlich's maneuver has proved itself
over the last 30 years because of the lives it has saved,"
Kraft said. Heimlich continues to assert it's a medical faux
pas to use back blows to save a choking victim, he said. "Back
blow drives a food deeper into the throat rather than expel it,"
Kraft said. (Dr. Robert) Baratz calls that, "pure nonsense.
" The Red Cross' new guidelines for conscious victims recommend
first applying backslaps. If that fails to remove the airway
obstruction, abdominal thrusts are recommended. For unconscious
victims, the new guidelines recommend chest thrusts, a method
first recommended in a 1976 study by Dr. Charles Guildner, whose
results were duplicated in a year 2000 study by Dr. Audun Langhelle.
January 9, 2007 - Nurse
Uses Heimlich Maneuver to Save Choking Diner by Jennifer
Linn, Ludington Daily News
March 21, 2008 - Choking
Rescue Advice Changes; Red Cross Recommends Classes by
Lisa Carolin, Ann Arbor News
One of the key messages the
Red Cross wants people to know is that the Heimlich maneuver
is no longer the first thing one should do to help a choking
victim. In March of 2006, the American Red Cross reinstated back
blows as the first treatment response..."It changed from
doing abdominal thrusts to doing a combination of back blows
with the victim being bent over,'' says Brothers. "You do
a combination of five back blows, then have the victim stand
upright for a series of five abdominal thrusts and then repeat
the cycle.''
November 25, 2008 - Dr.
McGeorge Demonstrates CPR And The Heimlich Maneuver,
WLIV-TV
McGeorge said back blows were
standard rescue treatment for choking until the 1970's, when
a new maneuver was described. After that, abdominal thrusts,
known commonly as the Heimlich Maneuver, were considered the
best rescue method for a choking person. McGeorge said the concern
about back blows was that they might cause the object to become
more lodged, but now opinions have shifted and a combination
of techniques appears best to save a life.
Minnesota
January 26, 2007 - Minneapolis
Star-Tribune, Heimlich
Family Divided Over Doctor's Reputation by Kim Ode
December 19, 2007 - Red
Cross Tips for Happy Holidays by Marie Plaskett, Winona
County Red Cross Executive Director, Winona Daily News
New
Jersey
August 14, 2007 - Controversial
Maneuver: Heimlich's claim that his famous procedure can save
near-drowning victims is disputed by many, including his own
son by Mike Riley, Asbury Park Press
February 27, 2010 - Quick
maneuvers, North Jersey Record
New
Mexico
October 21, 2006 - KOB-TV,
Albuquerque, Red
Cross Changes First Aid Training for Choking by Todd
Dukart
New
York
August 2,
2008 - Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, Kevin
Schroeder, honored by Red Cross for heroism by Bill Wolcott
January 9, 2007 - The Citizen,
Auburn, First
Aid Update by David Wilcox
Back blows
were advocated by the Red Cross as the best way to rescue a choking
victim until Cincinnati-based physician Henry J. Heimlich began
a media campaign for the maneuver he invented. It was adopted
by the Red Cross following a 1985 conference of the American
Heart Association, whose lead the Red Cross often follows in
establishing first aid guidelines. At that conference, Dr. Richard
Day presented a choking rescue committee with the results of
a study finding that back blows do indeed drive food further
down the windpipe. The Heimlich maneuver subsequently replaced
back blows as the recommended method of removing food from the
throats of choking victims. However, Heimlich's son, Peter, points
out that Day's research was devoid of scientific objectivity.
What my father and Dr. Day failed to divulge was that my father
had clandestinely funded the study and had a close relationship
with Day....
February 21, 2007: Maneuvering Over
Heimlich by Lenore Skenazy (syndicated column)
February 28,
2007 - WSYR (ABC-TV, Syracuse, NY) Doctor
on Call
by Carrie Lazarus
North
Carolina
October 19, 2007 - Heimlich
Family Maneuvers by W. Terry Smith, The Daily Southerner,
Tarboro
Ohio
FIRST NEWS OUTLET
TO REPORT THE RED CROSS UPDATE
August 3, 2006 - The Cincinnati
Beacon, The
Heimlich Remover: David Pepper, or the Red Cross?
November 1, 2006 - Cincinnati
CityBeat, Proofreaders
Are Sorely Missed by Ben L. Kaufman
November 5, 2006 - Columbus Dispatch, Red
Cross Revises Tips on Helping the Choking by Misti Crane
April 2007
- A
New Maneuver
by Pamela Mills-Senn, Cincinnati Magazine, April 2007:
Dr. Roger
White, who chaired panel discussions on the management of foreign-body
airway obstructions and who currently serves as consultant and
professor at the Mayo Clinic, told me via e-mail that neither
(Dr.) Heimlich's antics nor concerns over the AHA's (American
Heart Association) and the ARC's (American Red Cross) reputations
had anything to do with the decision (to eliminate backblows
in favor of the Heimlich maneuver)....However, in a 2004 e-mail
to Peter Heimlich (who corresponded with White using a pseudonym),
White is significantly less blase about Dr. Heimlich's role:
"There was never any evidence here," White wrote. "Heimlich
overpowered science all along the way with his slick tactics
and intimidation, and everyone, including us at the AHA caved
in."
Oregon
October 20, 2007 - Heimlich
Hero Goes National by Sanne Specht & October 23,
2007 - Because
We Like Ruining Your Fun, The Mail Tribune, Medford
Pennsylvania
June 3, 2007 - Blows
are Back by Jo Ciavaglia, Bucks County (PA) Courier Times:
With little public fanfare
nearly two years ago, the Red Cross resurrected back blows as
the first choking rescue response, reversing its long published
guidelines promoting abdominal thrusts - better known as the
Heimlich maneuver. The policy change has been called the most
significant in decades, with major implications for emergency
and first-aid education and training.
March 10, 2009 - Kiski
Student Saves Friend From Choking by Dr.
Maria Simbra, KDKA-TV (CBS) Pittsburgh
If someone can't talk, cough,
or breathe, or if they grab their throat, these are signs they
are choking and can't get oxygen - a dangerous situation for
the brain. With this kind of emergency, you want remember "five-and-five."
Five back blows between the shoulder blades with the heel of
your hand, five abdominal thrusts and then alternate between
back blows and abdominal thrusts until the blockage is dislodged.
South
Carolina
September 24, 2007 - Do
You Know What to Do When Someone is Choking? There Has Been a
Change in the Techniques Taught by the Red Cross by Scott
Powell, The Gaffney Ledger
Tennessee
February 12, 2007 - Daily
News Journal (Gannett, Murfreesboro, TN), Red
Cross Recommends Back Blows Before Heimlich by Colleen
Creamer
Peter Heimlich also maintains
that the American Red Cross is dragging its feet in getting the
information out about the new protocol.
(Red Cross spokeswoman Pamela)
King disagrees. At the local and national level, she said, efforts
are being made to let people know. "I know I have done several
media releases," said King. "Our chapters are going
out to their local communities. Anyone who is trained now you
are taught the new skills. So, they are in all of the new Red
Cross programs. We've got materials, posters and wallet cards."
Texas
October 21, 2007 - The
Tale of Choking and Wall Street by Lynn Walker, Times-Record
News, Wichita Falls
Utah
July 11, 2007 - New
Emergency CPR Procedures, KUTV (CBS affiliate), Salt
Lake City
In the last few years, lifesaving
rescue procedures have changed. If someone was choking, we used
to administer several abdominal thrusts until the object came
out, but now. “Now it’s a combo of back blows and abdominal
thrusts,” says Cheryl Gren of the Salt Lake Chapter of the
American Red Cross. Five blows to the back, five abdominal thrusts,
for babies, five blows to the back and five chest thrusts.
Vermont
November 22, 2006 - Seven
Days, Burlington, VT, Red
Cross Revises Tips for Helping Choking Victims by Ken
Picard
Virginia
May 18, 2005 - Heimlich's
Use Debated as Best Method for Aid by Jim Hall, Fredericksburg
Free Lance-Star
The Heimlich maneuver may
or may not be the best way to aid a conscious, choking adult.
It depends who you talk to. Someone trained in American Heart
Association techniques will recommend the Heimlich. But someone
trained by the American Red Cross will tell you to give five
back blows first, then do the Heimlich--if necessary. Sorry,
the Red Cross doesn't call it the Heimlich anymore. They say
give five "abdominal thrusts."
Washington
December 3, 2007 - Heimlich Maneuver
by Patricia Murphy, KUOW-FM, Seattle public radio
Wisconsin
November 7, 2006 - Madison
Capital Times, Big
Changes in Red Cross CPR Guidelines by Amy Mertz
November 24, 2006 (reposted
6/12/08) - WAOW-TV, Wausau, Experts
Say: If Choking, Don't Use Heimlich Right Away!
June 21, 2010 - Anything
can happen in the woods, but trust your compass by Sarah
Juon, The Daily News, Rhinelander
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