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Henry Heimlich has died
- bootload 10y ago""As a young surgeon, Dad was the first American to devise and perform a total organ replacement. Later, he came up with a device that saved thousands of soldiers' lives during the Vietnam War. The Heimlich Chest Drain Valve is still used worldwide for patients undergoing chest surgery." Clearly Heimlich should be known for more than the HM.
- vanderZwan 10y agoIt's also mechanically incredibly simple[0], to the point where you can fairly easily DIY it (or a variation of it) if you ever need it. My dad (a doctor) did so once decades ago, while working in a hospital in Ghana. His patient was a man with a collapsed lung. IIRC, he took a surgeon glove, cut off the tips of two fingers, attached one to a tube, and made a knot in the wrist (so it became kind of like a balloon with two openings). The tube was attached to the lung, to drain fluid. The glove was partially submerged in a bucket of water, so it now functioned like a valve: when the patient breathed out, air and fluid could escape from the glove. When he breathed in, the suction plus water pressure would "seal off" the glove. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutter_valve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutter_valve
- bootload 10y ago"It's also mechanically incredibly simple" Holy cow, hats off to your Dad for this. Everything is simple in theory, putting it into practice on a critically ill person is something else.
- schoen 10y agoThe Heimlich maneuver is one of those things that's much more recent than I imagined. (Another is the bicycle, the modern design of which is only from the late 1800s, just a few decades before the automobile and airplane.)
- danso 10y agoWow, you aren't kidding. I had imagined it to be an invention of the 1950s, not the seventies.
- sparky_z 10y agoSee also: Ciabatta Bread. I always assumed it had deep historical roots in Italian culinary tradition, but turns out it was invented by some Italian baker in the 1980s who was envious of the French and their baguettes.
- schoen 10y agoWow, thanks for the example. It turns out ciabatta is about the same age as the bakery I get it from (!).
- seibelj 10y agoI am by no means denigrating the man's accomplishments, he certainly was a great man. However, it is worth noting that he became something of a quack, advocating that the maneuver could cure various ailments unrelated to choking.[0] The linked Radio Lab episode provides a full picture of the man and is very interesting. [0] http://www.radiolab.org/story/273532-heimlich/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/273532-heimlich/
- defen 10y agoThere is also some really weird stuff with his kids, where at least one of his sons and the son's wife consider him to be a total fraud. Gelman wrote about it here (including link to son's page) http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/ http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/
- danso 10y agoFrom the comments section: http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/#comment-325017 http://andrewgelman.com/2016/10/09/heimlich/#comment-325017 > Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is stranger than truth. Andrew’s next-to-last sentence links to: > “(The Heimlich manoeuvre) has never been used in Australia. Despite the claims of the extremely charismatic Dr. Heimlich, Australian resuscitation experts believe that there isn’t enough scientific evidence to support its use. So how does a medical procedure become so widely adopted without any serious scientific evidence? — The Heimlich manoeuvre by Aviva Ziegler, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 27, 2009” I'm on mobile so am not able to look it up easily, but I'm assuming there are some experiments to verify beyond anecdotes whether the maneuver works, right? Also, what do Australians use in lieu of it?
- dchest 10y agoAccording to Wikipedia: In some areas, such as Australia, authorities believe that there is not enough scientific evidence to support the use of abdominal thrusts and their use is not recommended in first aid. Instead, chest thrusts are recommended. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdominal_thrusts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdominal_thrusts
- canada_dry 10y agoChalk another one up to 2016.
- xyzzy4 10y agoBlack bar?
- jasonzwalker 10y agoDid he choked to death?
- serg_chernata 10y agoHere's an interesting fact, he used his own move for the first time earlier this year[1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787093
- petarvasilev 10y agoIt's weird at the very least how people care so much about the death of one person while 21,000 people die every day of hunger.
- chasing 10y agoFirst, a fun fact: I was in a class teaching the Heimlich Maneuver yesterday afternoon. The teacher notes that Heimlich is, in fact, still alive at 96 years old. Not five minutes later someone holds up their iPhone -- "hey, I just got the craziest news alert..." Second: According to the same teacher, as well, some lawsuits on the part of Heimlich or his family have caused the American Heart Association to now recommend using the term "abdominal thrusts" instead of "Heimlich maneuver." Which the teacher considered sad because it would cause the name of the doctor to be forgotten over time. I'm having a hard time finding an online reference to this -- so curious if anyone else has heard something along these lines.
- sandstrom 10y agoThis short interview (1m 20s) about Heimlich saving another guest at the nursing home he was living in is wonderful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yWQ50MnBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yWQ50MnBM