Change Agents
Change Agents
Academy of Achievement
Dr. Henry Heimlich
17 minutes Posted Jun 28, 1985 at 1:00 pm.
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Show notes
Dr. Henry Jay Heimlich is a controversial
American physician who is the inventor of abdominal thrusts to
rescue a choking-victim, more commonly known as the "Heimlich
Maneuver." A graduate of Cornell Medical College in 1943, he
first published his views about the maneuver in 1947 in an
informal article in "Emergency Medicine." His method for saving
the life of a person choking on food by pressing a fist into the
victim's abdomen has caused him to be credited with saving 50,000
people in the United Sates alone, "more lives saved than any
other living American." Dr. Heimlich's career is notable for the
abundance of creative, simple solutions he has provided for
seemingly insurmountable health and medical problems. In the
1950s, a month after completing training in general and chest
surgery, he conceived of an operation to replace the esophagus,
in the first total organ replacement in history. Dr. Heimlich
also advocates the controversial and unproven use of malaria to
treat HIV. Dr. Heimlich has been enshrined in the Engineering and
Science Hall of Fame and is the recipient of the Albert Lasker
Public Service Award, the highest honor in American medicine. Dr.
Henry Heimlich addressed the student delegates at the 1985
Achievement Summit in Denver, Colorado.