Home Health Heimlich, Developer Of Maneuver To Save Choking Victims, Dead At 96 (Video)

Heimlich, Developer Of Maneuver To Save Choking Victims, Dead At 96 (Video)

Heimlich
Dr. Henry Heimlich (L), the 96-year-old Cincinnati surgeon credited with inventing the life-saving technique named for him, poses with Patty Ris, 87, who he saved this week from choking on a hamburger, at the Deupree House seniors' home in Cincinatti, Ohio, U.S. May 27, 2016. Episcopal Retirement Services/Bryan Reynolds/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Henry Heimlich, the medical maverick who came up with a maneuver credited with saving thousands of choking victims but who damaged his standing as a proponent of the curative powers of malaria, died on Saturday at the age of 96.

Heimlich, a doctor who developed a life-saving technique to dislodge airway blockages, died at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati of complications from a massive heart attack he suffered on Monday, his family said in a statement.

A thoracic surgeon who often feuded with the established medical community, Heimlich said the maneuver which was named after him saved more than 100,000 lives. He claimed to have used it himself last May on another resident of the Cincinnati retirement home where he lived.

“It made me appreciate how wonderful it has been to be able to save all those lives,” he once told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Heimlich came up with the ground-breaking technique in 1974 after reading about the high rate of deaths in restaurants that first were attributed to heart attacks, but later found to have been caused by diners choking on food. READ MORE