"A Caring World"? - My father's
history of abusing colleagues
by Peter
M. Heimlich
The first stumbling
steps to a caring world have been taken. It is
important that we spread the word throughout the
world that, for the first time, A Caring World is
possible. When all are conscious of the benefits
that can result for all peoples from caring, it
will be possible to accomplish that end. We must
demand that caring continues to disseminate
throughout the world; a meaningful sense of values
must be established. Caring individuals must be
the role models for all people, but especially for
the young. The media should deliberately spread
the pictures and words of those doing caring acts
for others internationally, as is now done for
athletes, entertainers and politicians. Nothing is
more important for the survival of humanity from
this day forward. True happiness results from
giving of yourself for others. Have you done a
caring act lately? - Henry J. Heimlich MD via
the Heimlich Institute website:
From personal correspondence:
I chaired the 1986
American Heart Association CPR Guidelines
Conference panel on near-drowning. Dr. Heimlich
was on the panel and was quite cordial until
after the meeting when, after ALL of the other
panelists felt that there was insufficient
evidence to recommend his maneuver first ahead
of MTM ventilation. (It was added for cases
where particulate matter was suspected to be in
the airway or if MTM failed). At that point, he
viciously attacked ME (even though I was totally
neutral and just interested in the data). He got
really angry when I pressed him to produce
references for studies he was citing that,
despite a great deal of library work on my part,
could simply not be found.
He wrote to my
University president, dean, and about a dozen
others accusing me of everything under the sun.
As a brand new, junior faculty member, that
created a major problem which, fortunately, once
reviewed locally, went away as my superiors
realized that I had done nothing wrong.
I believe that Dr.
Heimlich may have tried the same tactics with
Dr. Linda Quan, Dr. Richard Melker, Dr. Jerome
Modell, and even Dr. Roger White. There was
clearly a pattern to his behavior.
Joseph P. Ornato, MD, FACP, FACC, FACEP
Professor & Chairman, Dept of Emergency
Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System
Richmond, VA
From Doctors
Choke on Other Use for Heimlich Maneuver
by Natalie Gagliordi, The Oracle, October
1, 2007:
"Most people don't
know that my father cultivated a reputation in
the medical profession as someone who would
relentlessly attack other doctors," Peter
(Heimlich) said. "He'd write letters to people's
bosses demanding they be fired and would hint at
pending lawsuits. After writing directly to Dr.
Heimlich and publishing his article in JAMA,
(Dr. James) Orlowski witnessed the wrath first
hand. "He began accusing me of all kinds of
unethical behavior," Orlowski said. "Basically
he tried to make my life as miserable as
possible."
From The
Heimlich Manoeuvre by Aviva Ziegler,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 27,
2009:
In response to the
article I wrote in the Journal of the American
Medical Association Dr Heimlich, rather than
replying in a letter to the editor, which is the
way most scientists would do it, instead tried
to attack me personally, tried to actually get
me fired from my institution - James Orlowski MD
From Off
the Deep End by Curt Guyette, Detroit
Metro Times, 12/8/04:
“Heimlich went
nuts,” Ornato says. Among other things, Heimlich
wrote to officials at the Medical College of
Virginia, where Ornato had just joined the
faculty. “He almost got me fired,” Ornato says.
“The things he was saying about me were really
slanderous.”
Linda Quan MD: “(Dr. Heimlich) went to
my university and accused me of scientific
misconduct. Basically he said I hadn’t used good
science. They did an investigation and cleared
me of any wrongdoing."
From an April
19, 2006 public letter by Charles
W. Guildner MD (via The Wayback Machine):
When I first
learned of Dr. Heimlich’s proposal of the
maneuver for relieving choking sometime around
1973 or 1974, I was a consultant to the American
Heart Association’s (AHA) Emergency Cardiac Care
(ECC) Committee and active in research in the
area of emergency airway management. I am an
Anesthesiologist and was, at the time, in
practice in Everett, Washington. Having been
interested in resuscitation for many years, I
was excited about Dr. Heimlich’s proposal.
Creating an “artificial cough” made a lot of
sense to me.
Because Dr.
Heimlich used dogs for his experiments and since
the dog has a much different anatomical
configuration compared with the human, I
proposed to the ECC my idea of a study on human
volunteers and was encouraged to proceed. I
think there was an overall excitement over the
“Heimlich” concept.
I contacted Dr.
Heimlich to review with him, the exact procedure
as he conceived it. He was excited about my
study and was, at first, very cooperative and
encouraging. He asked that I let him know of the
results of this study as soon as possible as he
had a lecture to give in the near future,
wanting to know of results of my study. While
designing the protocol for this study, I decided
to make a comparison between applying the
“thrust” to the upper abdomen (Heimlich) and
applying the “thrust” to the mid chest. We
measured peak pressures and volumes created by
the different maneuvers in six anesthetized
human volunteers.
What became evident
was that greater peak pressures, flows and
volumes of air moved resulted with the “Chest
Thrust” than with the “Abdominal Thrust”
(Heimlich). I reported this to Dr. Heimlich. He
went ballistic, nasty. His personality changed
completely. I was shocked and amazed. My
amazement and shock was only beginning. He
immediately filed unethical medical practices
against me with the American Medical
Association, American Society of
Anesthesiologists, Washington State Medical
Association, my local hospitals, the American
Heart Association and there may have been
others. Dr. Heimlich made my life a wreck for
two years while all of the investigations and
name calling continued....I was completely
exonerated.
From Heimlich
Maneuver by Patricia Murphy, KUOW Public
Radio, December 7, 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
Copyright, all rights reserved @ Peter M. Heimlich,
all rights reserved. Click
here to report broken links or to contact the
author.
heimlich,
maneuver, manuever, manuver, henry heimlich, henry
j. heimlich, drowning, lifeguard, lifeguards, red
cross, american red cross, heart association,
american heart association, choke, choking,
drowning, asthma, bob kraft, dan pinger, edward a.
patrick, backslap, backslaps, back slap, backblow,
backblows, back blows, Phil Heimlich, Janet
Heimlich, heimlich, maneuver, manuever, manuver,
henry heimlich, henry j. heimlich, drowning,
lifeguard, lifeguards, red cross, american red
cross, heart association, american heart
association, choke, choking, drowning, asthma, bob
kraft, dan pinger, edward a. patrick, backslap,
backslaps, back slap, backblow, backblows, back
blows, Phil Heimlich, Janet Heimlich,heimlich,
maneuver, manuever, manuver, henry heimlich, henry
j. heimlich, drowning, lifeguard, lifeguards, red
cross, american red cross, heart association,
american heart association, choke, choking,
drowning, asthma, bob kraft, dan pinger, edward a.
patrick, backslap, backslaps, back slap, backblow,
backblows, back blows, Phil Heimlich, Janet
Heimlich,heimlich, maneuver, manuever, manuver,
henry heimlich, henry j. heimlich, drowning,
lifeguard, lifeguards, red cross, american red
cross, heart association, american heart
association, choke, choking, drowning, asthma, bob
kraft, dan pinger, edward a. patrick, backslap,
backslaps, back slap, backblow, backblows, back
blows, Phil Heimlich, Janet Heimlich,heimlich,
maneuver, manuever, manuver, henry heimlich, henry
j. heimlich, drowning, lifeguard, lifeguards, red
cross, american red cross, heart association,
american heart association, choke, choking,
drowning, asthma, bob kraft, dan pinger, edward a.
patrick, backslap, backslaps, back slap, backblow,
backblows, back blows, Phil Heimlich, Janet
Heimlich,heimlich, maneuver, manuever, manuver,
henry heimlich, henry j. heimlich, drowning,
lifeguard, lifeguards, red cross, american red
cross, heart association, american heart
association, choke, choking, drowning, asthma, bob
kraft, dan pinger, edward a. patrick, backslap,
backslaps, back slap, backblow, backblows, back
blows, Phil Heimlich, Janet Heimlich,heimlich,
maneuver, manuever, manuver, henry heimlich, henry
j. heimlich, drowning, lifeguard, lifeguards, red
cross, american red cross, heart association,
american heart association, choke, choking,
drowning, asthma, bob kraft, dan pinger, edward a.
patrick, backslap, backslaps, back slap, backblow,
backblows, back blows, Phil Heimlich, Janet
Heimlich