by Peter
M. Heimlich
Spiritual Values
We embrace and promote spiritual values of our Christian heritage
to guide ethical decision-making and to promote wholeness in
our staff and those we serve.
Public Accountability
We are responsive to the needs of our community and are committed
to promoting and providing appropriate community-centered services
to improve the health status of the people we serve.
"Our
Corporate Values"
- Deaconess Associations Inc.
Deaconess
Associations Inc. is a leading Cincinnati hospital and health
services corporation that wholly owns the Heimlich Institute
Inc. My father, Dr. Henry Heimlich, has no ownership of the nonprofit
that bears his name; he's simply a member of the corporate board.
In June 1998,
The Heimlich Institute became a member of Deaconess Associations
Inc., to help advance and promote the mission and vision of The
Heimlich Institute in perpetuity. (source)
Since then,
Deaconess has been promoting and fundraising on all of my father's
medical claims and fundraising based on falsehoods:
Work also
continues to find alternate uses for the Maneuver. Studies indicate
that, in addition to choking, the Maneuver saves drowning victims,
helps asthma sufferers, and may reduce the incidence of death
in victims of pulmonary edema (fluid-filled lungs). (source)
Located on
the campus of Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati, the Heimlich
Institute continues to conduct scientific, cultural and social
research into issues of importance to the medical and scientific
community. (source)
Research continues
at the Heimlich Institute? That is surely false, since the Heimlich
Institute has existed solely as a website since Spring 2005.
Check out this November
17, 2006 ABC7 News report in which Chicago reporter Chuck Goudie visited
the the Heimlich Institute at Deaconess and found nobody home.
Deaconess refused to answer questions while my father hid - literally
- behind my mother:
From The
Heimlich Maneuvers by Linda Vaccariello, Cincinnati Magazine, December
2005
(The Heimlich
Institute is) comprised of a few locked offices in a rather desultory
corridor of a building on Straight Street next to Deaconess Hospital.
According to the institute's IRS form 990 from 2003 (the most
recent available), it has assets of $650,000. Deaconess no longer
employs the institute's most recent research director, Eric Spletzer,
and the secretary seems to have been relocated. It is a quiet
place.
The Heimlich
Institute does have a Web site, however, with a link to a printable
donation form. According to the form, which was still posted
in early November, you can make a gift to the institute to be
used for malariotherapy research for cancer; malariotherapy research
for AIDS; educating the public on the use of the Heimlich Maneuver
for choking and drowning; or research into the use of the maneuver
for asthma.
Are medical
staff in the Deaconess Hospital ER trained to do the Heimlich
maneuver on drowning victims? Are Deaconess pulmonary physicians
recommending the maneuver for their asthma patients or using
the method to remove pulmonary edema? Of course not. They could
be sued for providing substandard care.
But Deaconess
has no problem promoting medical misinformation via the Heimlich Institute website. For
example:
Drowning occurs
when a victim's lungs fill with water. As long as water remains
in the lungs, breathing is impossible. The Heimlich Maneuver®
pushes up on the diaphragm, compressing the lungs. This quickly
expels water from the lungs of drowning victims and jump starts
breathing. Mouth-to-mouth, in contrast, attempts to force air
into lungs which are already full of water. The Heimlich Maneuver
saves drowning victims by instantly and safely removing water
from the lungs. This enables drowning victims to breathe. Just
about everyone, including children, knows how to perform the
Heimlich Maneuver. The public only needs to learn: To save drowning
victims, use the same Heimlich Maneuver as for choking victims.
Every leading
first aid and water safety organization, including the National
Academy of Sciences, the American Heart Association and the American
Red Cross, has published guidelines and reports (click
here
to read them) stating there is little or no water in the lungs
of drowning victims. In other words, my father's entire theory
is based on his ignorance of the science. But that's no problem
for Deaconess, which continues to put the public at risk by publishing
and promoting this incorrect and dangerous medical advice which
has reportedly been associated with dozens of serious injuries
and deaths, including kids.
When will
Cincinnati media confront the board members of Deaconess Associations
and the Heimlich Institute, some of Cincinnati's most prominent
citizens, and ask why they're promoting potentially deadly quack
medical treatments "in perpetuity" and to substantiate
their fundraising claims about nonexistent research?
Corporate
board members of Deaconess Associations Inc. (per 2007
IRS 990)
E. Anthony Woods, Chairman
Lee
W. Scroggins,
Vice Chairman
James
L. Pahls,
Secretary/Treasurer
William
F. Bahl,
Trustee
Donald
Bell,
Trustee
Corporate
board of the Heimlich Institute Foundation Inc. (per 2007
IRS 990)
Henry J. Heimlich MD, trustee
Philip
M. Heimlich,
vice president (former public official turned radio
talk show host)
Barbara
Lohr,
secretary (Director of Corporate Marketing & Communications,
Deaconess Associations)
E.
Anthony Woods,
chairman (also Chairman of Deaconess Associations and SupportSource;
board member LCA-Vision, Cincinnati Financial Corporation, and
Phoenix Health Systems)
Jane
Mary Tenhover,
trustee (Executive Director, Deaconess Health Associations Fund;
vice president of development, St. Elizabeth Medical Center;
has worked in fund-raising for American Guild of English Handbell
Ringers, Sisters of Charity, Cincinnati Museum Center and the
University Of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
Woods Tenhover Phil
Heimlich (at Topeka
Kansas "prayer breakfast")
For Heimlich
Institute IRS 990s, 1989+1995-present, click
here
For Heimlich Institute board
members, 1995-present (from IRS 990s), click
here
Includes
Anson Williams ("Potsie"
from Happy Days), political lobbyist Dick Weiland, ex-Cincinnati
Enquirer editor George Blake, molecular biologist Piotr Chomczynski,
ventriloquist Paul Winchell, attorney Joe Dehner, and other well-known
Cincinnatians, but not a single medical professional except for
my father (who has not actively practiced since he was fired
from his last hospital job in 1976).
Copyright @ 2008
Peter M. Heimlich, all rights reserved. Click
here to report broken links or to contact the author.