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Dr. Henry Jay Heimlich (born Henry J. Heimlich; February 3, 1920) is an American physician who has received credit as the inventor of the Heimlich maneuver. Heimlich also advocates the use of malaria to treat HIV.

Personal life

Heimlich, born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Philip and Mary (Epstein) Heimlich, graduated from New Rochelle High School (NY) in 1937 and from Cornell University (where he served as drum major of the Cornell Big Red Marching Band) with a B.A. in 1941. He received his M.D. from the Weill Cornell Medical College in 1943. On June 4, 1951, Heimlich married Jane Murray, daughter of ballroom-dancing entrepreneur Arthur Murray. Heimlich's wife co-authored a book on homeopathy and herself wrote What Your Doctor Won't Tell You, which advocated chelation therapy and other alternative therapies.

The Heimlichs have four children.

Heimlich is the uncle of Anson Williams, who is known for his portrayal as Warren "Potsie" Weber on the 70s hit TV show Happy Days.

The Heimlich maneuver

Heimlich first published his views about the maneuver in a June 1974 article in Emergency Medicine entitled, "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary". On June 19, 1974, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that retired restaurant-owner Isaac Piha used the procedure to rescue a choking victim, Irene Bogachus, in Bellevue, Washington. It was the first reported account of the use of the method, which would later be known as the "Heimlich maneuver".

In an August 1974 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), it was reported that it saved so many lives in 2 months, that they named the method, the Heimlich maneuver.

From 1976 to 1985, the choking-rescue guidelines of the American Heart Association and of the American Red Cross taught rescuers to first perform a series of backblows to remove the FBAO (foreign body airway obstruction); if backblows failed, then rescuers learned to proceed with the Heimlich maneuver. After a July 1985 American Heart Association conference, backblows were removed from choking-rescue guidelines. From 1986 to 2005, the published guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross recommended only the Heimlich maneuver as the treatment for choking.

Heimlich valve

In 1963, Heimlich introduced a chest drainage flutter valve (also called the Heimlich valve). He claims his inspiration came from seeing a Chinese soldier die from a bullet wound to the chest during World War II. The design of the valve allows air and blood to drain from a collapsed lung.

Malariotherapy

From the early 1980s, Heimlich advocated malariotherapy, the deliberate infection of a person with malaria in order to treat ailments such as cancer, Lyme disease and (more recently) HIV. As of 2009 the treatments have proven unsuccessful, and have attracted criticism as both scientifically unsound and dangerous. The United States Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have rejected malariotherapy and, along with health professionals and advocates for human rights, consider the practice "atrocious". Sources have disclosed that the Heimlich Institute, a subsidiary of Deaconess Associations of Cincinnati, is conducting malariotherapy trials in Ethiopia, though the Ethiopian Ministry of Health was unaware of any such trials. Reportedly the trials were supervised by Mekbib Wondewassen, an Ethiopian immigrant who works as a car rental agent in the San Francisco area. Heimlich claims that his initial trials with seven subjects produced positive results, but he has refused to provide details. The experiments have no institutional review board oversight.

Studies in Africa, where both HIV and malaria occur commonly, indicate that malaria/HIV co-infection increases viral load and that malaria could increase the rate of spread of HIV as well as accelerate disease progression. Based on such studies, Paul Farmer at Harvard Medical School described the idea of treating HIV with malaria by stating “it seems improbable. The places where malaria takes its biggest toll are precisely those in which HIV reaps its grim harvest”.

References

1. Williams, Anson. "Trivia". Retrieved 1 October 2011.
2. Elliott, J (2003-03-09). "Heimlich: Still saving lives at 83". BBC. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
3. ^ Zengerle, Jason (2007-04-23). "The Choke Artist". The New Republic. pp. 23–36.
4. Anglen, Robert (2003-02-16). "Scientists linked to Heimlich investigated: Experiment infects AIDS patients in China with malaria". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved 2008-01-27. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
5. "Heimlich's Audacious Maneuver". Los Angeles Times. 1994-10-30. Retrieved 2008-01-27. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
6. Cite error: The named reference Radar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. Abu-Raddad L, Patnaik P, Kublin J (2006). "Dual infection with HIV and malaria fuels the spread of both diseases in sub-Saharan Africa". Science. 314 (5805): 1603–6. doi:10.1126/science.1132338. PMID 17158329.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
8. Kublin JG; Patnaik P; Jere CS; et al. (2005). "Effect of Plasmodium falciparum malaria on concentration of HIV-1-RNA in the blood of adults in rural Malawi: a prospective cohort study". The Lancet. 365 (9455): 233–40. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)17743-5. PMID 15652606. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |author-separator= ignored (help)
9. Nierengarten MB (2003). "Malariotherapy to treat HIV patients?". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 3 (6): 321. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(03)00642-X. PMID 12781493. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Biography page at the Heimlich Institute
• Outmaneuvered: How We Busted the Heimlich Medical Frauds by Peter M. Heimlich

Template:Persondata

• 1920 births
• Living people
• American physicians
• Cornell University alumni
• People from New Rochelle, New York
• First aid
• American Jews
• People from Wilmington, Delaware