Dr Heimlich was a jewish thoracic surgeon. Heimlich attended Cornell University’s undergraduate and medical schools and interned at Boston City Hospital. During the second world war, the US navy sent him to north-west China in 1942 to treat Chinese and American forces behind Japanese lines in the Gobi desert.

Working in emergency medicine in 1970, Dr Heimlich noticed a concerning trend that choking contributed to approx 19,000 deaths per year, prompting him to gather a team of researchers for full investigation.

During the next two years he led a team of researchers, successfully testing the technique by putting a tube with a balloon at one end down an anesthetized dog’s airway until the animal choked. He then used the maneuver to force the dog to expel the obstruction. The technique became as the Heimlich Manover and works by applying a force to under the diagram forcing airway to expell the lungs and enough pressure to dislodge a choke hazzard.

The maneuver was adopted by public health authorities, airlines and restaurant associations, and Heimlich became a celebrity, attending many TV programme and health related promotion.

His views on how the maneuver should be used and on other innovations put him at odds with some in the health field. He said his memoir was an effort to preserve his technique which has since been adapted to include back blows in a sequence of  5 back blows, followed by 5 abdominal thrusts and repeat. We know longer call the techique the Heimlich but abdominal thrusts.

Dr Heimlich said “I know the maneuver saves lives, and I want it to be used and remembered,” he said. “I felt I had to have it down in print so the public will have the correct information.”

Heimlich said the maneuver was very effective when used correctly, but he did not approve of American Red Cross guidelines calling for back blows followed by abdominal thrusts in choking cases that do not involve infants or unconscious victims.

Red Cross officials said evidence showed using multiple methods can be more effective, but Heimlich said blows can drive obstructions deeper into a windpipe. The British Heart Association and 3 societies all back abdominal thrusts.

Neither organization supported Heimlich’s view that using the maneuver to remove water from the lungs could save drowning victims. They recommend CPR, started with 5 rescue breathes.

Heimlich was proud of some of his other innovations, such as a chest drain valve credited by some with saving soldiers and civilians during the Vietnam war. But received criticism from his medical peers for his theory that injecting patients with a curable form of malaria could trigger immunity in patients with the HIV virus that causes Aids. 

Dr Heimlich has know doubt saved lives and an adapted version of his technique taught on all our first aid courses.