At 96, Heimlich performs his own maneuver

Monday might not have been the first time Dr. Henry Heimlich performed his namesake medical procedure on a live choking victim.

But the woman who survived the incident said she's thankful the 96-year-old Cincinnati resident sprung into action on her behalf.

Heimlich told The Enquirer Thursday his encounter with Patty Ris at the Deupree House senior living facility, where they both live, was the first time he ever performed it on a person needing immediate aid. However, several published reports in the early 2000s from news outlets ranging from the BBC to the Chicago Sun-Times show interviews with Heimlich describing himself using the maneuver. In one interview, he said he helped a man at the former private dining club, the Banker's Club, in Downtown Cincinnati in 2001.

Heimlich is credited with popularizing the technique designed to help clear the blocked airway of a choking victim. Since the doctor and Jewish Hospital researchers developed the technique in the 1970s, the Heimlich maneuver is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives.

Here is what those involved say happened on Monday:

There were about 125 people in the dining room just before 7 p.m. when Perry Gaines, maître d’ for the Deupree House dining room, said Ris began choking. He was alerted to the incident by a staff member who ran into the kitchen to find him.

"I saw someone standing behind her as she sat down," Gaines said. "Sometimes residents try to help in medical situations but we tend to discourage it. But I noticed it was Dr. Heimlich and he was doing the maneuver. ... I stepped back and let Dr. Heimlich continue on.

"She coughed up some of the food she was having trouble with," Gaines said. "Dr. Heimlich sat down and we gave her a little water to drink, but she still had trouble breathing. He proceeded to do it a second time. After a couple minutes, he sat down and everyone kept eating. She seemed like she fine."

Gaines said the entire incident lasted less than 10 minutes.

"I ordered a hamburger and the next thing I knew, I couldn't breathe I was choking so hard," Ris said in a recorded video provided by a public relations firm to The Enquirer. "And it's Dr. Heimlich next to me. So he did the Heimlich maneuver."

Julia Dolle, a dining room server, said she was in the dining room during the choking incident and saw Heimlich providing aid to Ris for several minutes.

"We were amazed," Dolle said.

Gaines echoed Dolle's amazement.

"When I saw Dr. Heimlich doing his own maneuver, I knew it was historic," Gaines said. "At his age, that's a very physical type of activity. To see him do it is a fascinating thing. The whole dining room, you could hear a needle drop."

Ris said she wrote Heimlich a thank-you note for saving her life afterward.

It read, she recalled in the video: "God put me in this seat next to you."

Heimlich spoke to The Enquirer on Thursday night.

“When I used it, and she recovered quickly,” he said, “it made me appreciate how wonderful it has been to be able to save all those lives.”

Bryan Reynolds, a spokesman for Episcopal Retirement Services, which owns the Deupree House, said Thursday Heimlich is very active for his age and has lived at the Hyde Park senior facility for about six years. He swims and exercises regularly.

Cincinnati.com initially published a story late Thursday about the incident, quoting Heimlich as saying this was the first time he'd ever performed his own maneuver on someone. But then one of his sons, Peter Heimlich, reached out to media organizations pointing out the existence of articles roughly 15 years ago.

Another son, local attorney Phil Heimlich, said he doesn't recall those media reports.

"All I can say is none of us had a recollection of it," Phil Heimlich said. "If dad did it, I would’ve heard about it."

It isn't the first time Heimlich's statements have been challenged. In 2003, The Enquirer reported that Romanian surgeon Dr. Dan Gavriliu disputed statements from the Cincinnati doctor that he developed an operation that uses a section of the stomach to bypass the esophagus. The Romanian doctor claimed Heimlich took credit for a procedure he developed years earlier.