Henry Heimlich, MD, the thoracic surgeon behind the Heimlich maneuver, has died at age 96, reports NPR.
Dr. Heimlich died Saturday at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati after experiencing a major heart attack six days earlier, according to Bryan Reynolds, a spokesperson for Episcopal Retirement Services, which ran the retirement home Dr. Heimlich lived in.
While Dr. Heimlich helped popularize the Heimlich maneuver in the 1970s, the iconic technique was first penned under a different name — "subdiaphragmatic pressure." In June 1974, Dr. Heimlich described the maneuver in the Journal of the American Medical Association using this term. A few months later, the editors of the journal called Dr. Heimlich and said they wanted to name the maneuver after him, since his technique had already saved so many lives, according to NPR.
Earlier this year, Dr. Heimlich made headlines when he used his own maneuver to help an 87-year-old woman and fellow nursing home resident who was choking on a hamburger.
According to a statement from the Heimlich family, the surgeon's legacy encompasses more than just the Heimlich maneuver. Dr. Heimlich was the first American to devise and perform a total organ replacement and also developed the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve, which helped save thousands of soldiers during the Vietnam War, according to the family's statement.
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