Henry Heimlich, life-saving maneuver creator, dies at 96

CINCINNATI — Dr. Henry Heimlich, the Jewish surgeon who created the life-saving Heimlich maneuver for choking victims died Saturday at the age of 96.

Heimlich died early Saturday at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati. His son, Phil, says he suffered a heart attack earlier in the week.

Heimlich was director of surgery at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati in 1974 when he devised the treatment for choking victims that made his name a household word.

Rescuers using the procedure abruptly squeeze a victim’s abdomen, pushing in and above the navel with the fist to create a flow of air from the lungs. That flow of air then can push objects out of the windpipe and prevent suffocation.

The Wilmington, Delaware, native estimated the maneuver had saved the lives of thousands of choking victims in the United States alone.

In May, the retired surgeon used the emergency technique for the first time himself to save a woman choking on food at his senior living center.

Heimlich told The Cincinnati Enquirer that he had demonstrated the well-known maneuver many times through the years but had never before used it on a person who was choking.

An employee at the Deupree House in Cincinnati where Heimlich lived said the retired chest surgeon was in the room when an 87-year-old woman began choking. The employee says Heimlich dislodged a piece of hamburger from the woman’s airway and she quickly recovered.

Heimlich said it made him appreciate how wonderful it has been “to be able to save all those lives.”

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.