Henry Heimlich, MD Papers

Henry Judah Heimlich was born on February 3, 1920, in Wilmington, Delaware to Mary Epstein and Philip Heimlich. He graduated from Cornell University with a BA in 1941 and from Cornell University Medical College with an MD in 1943. After a nine-month surgery internship in Boston, he joined the United States Navy in 1944 and served as a surgeon as part of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization, a secret organization established by the United States and China to perform intelligence and guerilla operations against Japan during World War II. Heimlich provided medical care to American military personnel, local civilians, and Chinese guerrillas in northwest China during his wartime service. After the war, he completed his residency training in thoracic surgery at several hospitals in New York City, including Veterans Hospital in the Bronx, Mount Sinai, Bellevue, and Triboro Hospital. After completing his training in 1950 he joined the attending surgical staff at Montefiore Hospital and was on the faculty of the New York Medical School. In 1969, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he spent the rest of his career: first at the Jewish Hospital as Director of Surgery and later at Xavier Hospital, where he established the Heimlich Institute.

Heimlich was involved with the invention, development, or promotion of medical or surgical procedures over the course of his career. This included the Heimlich-Gavriliu procedure, which involves the construction of a new esophagus using a tube created from the patient’s stomach in the 1950s; the Heimlich chest drain valve, also known as the “flutter valve,” which was created in 1962 and used widely during the Vietnam; and the MicroTrach portable oxygen system for ambulatory patients, which was a tube inserted into the trachea so patients could breathe through portable oxygen tanks, among others. In the 1980s he also became an advocate for the use of malariotherapy for the treatment of various medical issues (including HIV and AIDS), though other health experts deemed the treatments as ineffective and potentially dangerous.

Heimlich is best known for the anti-choking maneuver he is widely credited for, which became synonymous with his name: the Heimlich maneuver. Heimlich reportedly wanted to create a simple first-aid procedure which did not require any specialized instruments or equipment to reduce the number of choking deaths each year. He experimented by placing an endotracheal tube (blocked off at the end and the cuff inflated) into a dog’s larynx, eventually finding success by pressing under the diaphragm to expel the tube. He continued experimenting on various subjects and ultimately published an essay on his new maneuver, a series of abdominal thrusts used to treat upper airway obstructions by foreign objects, in the June 1974 issue of Emergency Medicine. Heimlich would then publish a peer-reviewed article on the new maneuver in October 1975 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. He won the Albert Lasker Public Service Award in 1984 for the Heimlich maneuver. He would later recommend it also be used as a treatment for other health conditions or emergencies such as drowning, which was strongly criticized and disputed by other health experts.

Heimlich married Jane Murray in 1951, and together they had two sons and two daughters: Philip, Peter, Janet, and Elisabeth. Heimlich passed away at the age of 96 on December 17, 2016.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Gupta, Alisha. “Cornell Alum, Inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver, Dies at 96.” Cornell Daily Sun, December 17, 2016. https://cornellsun.com/2016/12/17/cornell-alum-inventor-of-the-heimlich-maneuver-dies-at-96/.

Markel, Howard, MD, PhD. “How Dr. Heimlich got his maneuver 40 years ago.” PBS News Hour, June 16, 2014. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/dr-heimlich-got-maneuver.

McFadden, Robert D. “Dr. Henry J. Heimlich, Famous for Antichoking Technique, Dies at 96.” New York Times, December 17, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/us/dr-henry-j-heimlich-famous-for-antichoking-technique-dies-at-96.html.