Dr Heimlich, 96, uses his manoeuvre to save fellow elderly people’s home resident

The inventor of the so-called "Heimlich manoeuvre" was in the dining room of the Deupree House in the US city of Cincinnati when an 87-year-old woman sitting next to him began choking.

Dr Henry Heimlich, 96, poses with Patty Ris, 87, who he saved on Monday from choking on a hamburger. Episcopal Retirement Services/Bryan Reynolds/Handout via Reuters

CINCINNATI // Dr Henry Heimlich leapt to the aid of a fellow resident at his elderly people’s home earlier this week, using the manoeuvre he invented to stop her from choking.

The 96-year-old was in the dining room of the Deupree House in the US city of Cincinnati when an 87-year-old woman sitting next to him began choking on Monday night.

The dining room maitre d', Perry Gaines, told The Cincinnati Enquirer Dr Heimlich dislodged a piece of hamburger from the woman's airway and that she quickly recovered.

The doctor said he was having dinner when he looked over at the woman sitting next to him and could see her face was growing pink and that she was obviously choking. He said he got up behind her and began the technique.

“As soon as I did the Heimlich manoeuvre, a piece of meat with a bone in it immediately popped out,” he said.

Patty Ris, the choking victim, said on Friday she couldn’t breathe and that Dr Heimlich had rushed over to stand her up and dislodge the food.

“I definitely would have died right then and there,” said Ms Ris, who said she felt fine on Friday and had no after-effects. “There was no doubt about it.”

Ms Ris said that after regaining her breath Dr Heimlich explained to her what he had done. “God put me in this seat next to you,” she told him afterwards.

Dr Heimlich said in interviews on Friday that it was the first time he’d used his namesake manoeuvre, and his son, Phil Heimlich, said he believed that was accurate. But in a 2003 interview with BBC News Online, Dr Heimlich said he had applied his emergency technique three years earlier.

The Heimlich manoeuvre involves abdominal thrusts applied to a choking person in an effort to lift the diaphragm and force air from the lungs to dislodge any object.

Dr Heimlich has said he developed the manoeuvre after reading accounts of people choking in restaurants, with many of them dying. Dr Heimlich’s views on how and when the manoeuvre should be used have put him at odds with some people in the health field.

* Associated Press