Would you like to get to know the US doctor Henry Heimlich, who discovered the technique called the "Heimlich maneuver" and used it to prevent people from drowning, and who "saved the lives" of tens of thousands of people?
Henry Yehudah Heimlich, (February 3, 1920 – December 17, 2016) was a Jewish-American thoracic surgeon and medical researcher. He is the creator of the Heimlich maneuver, which can be defined as the maneuver of pushing the abdominal cavity to stop choking, which revolutionized Emergency Medicine in 1974.
Heimlich was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1920, the son of Mary and Phillip Heimlich. His paternal grandparents were Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to the United States from Austria-Hungary. His maternal grandparents were Ashkenazi Jews who had immigrated from Russia. He graduated from New Rochelle High School (NY) in 1937 and Cornell University in 1941 with a BA.
During the Second World War, he served in the US Navy. He developed a cure for trachoma. Dr. Heimlich was the first American surgeon to perform an inverted gastric tube operation to replace a damaged or broken esophagus using a tube made from the patient's stomach.
He invented the Chest Drain Valve and prevented the collapse of the lungs after chest trauma as a result of injury or surgery. Widely used by the military during the Vietnam War, the device gave soldiers shot in the chest the first chance to survive in history. In 1962, Heimlich invented the chest drainage palpitation valve (also called the Heimlich valve).
He is also the inventor of the Heimlich maneuver. In 1974, Heimlich discovered a technique to prevent people from choking if their airway was blocked by food or a foreign object. Thanks to this technique, thousands of lives have been saved so far.
Henry Heimlich died of a heart attack at the age of 96 on December 17, 2016, at The Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
HOW IS THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER PERFORMED?
- The body is grasped by hugging the patient from behind while standing or sitting.
- One hand is made into a fist and the thumb protrusion is placed on the upper part of the stomach, under the breastbone. The hand that makes a fist with the other hand is grasped.
- Forcefully pressed backward and upwards.
- This movement is repeated 5-7 times until the foreign body is removed.