Henry Heimlich, inventor of manoeuvre used to stop people choking, dies aged 96 from complications following a heart attack
The technique has helped saved the lives of thousands of choking victims worldwide
THE DOCTOR who invented the lifesaving Heimlich manoeuvre has died aged 96.
Dr Henry Heimlich died at a hospital in Cincinnati early this morning following complications from a heart attack he suffered on Monday.
His family said: "We are saddened by the loss of our father, Dr. Henry J. Heimlich, who passed away earlier today at the age of 96.
"Dad was a hero to many people around the world for a simple reason: He helped save untold numbers of lives through the innovation of common-sense procedures and devices.
"But he was not only a physician and medical inventor, he was also a humanitarian and a loving and devoted son, husband, father, and grandfather.
"Dad was firm in his convictions and passionate for his causes. He didn’t play politics well. Instead, he was single-minded in his quest to find better ways to save lives. Dad dreamed that anything was possible in the field of medicine, even when critics said otherwise."
The medic invented the lifesaving technique, which uses abdominal thrusts to clear a person's airway, in 1974.
It is believed to have saved the lives of more than 100,000 people in the US alone - including President Ronald Reagan, Cher, Elizabeth Taylor and Carrie Fisher.
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Dr Heimlich used the technique for the first time in May to save a woman at his retirement home.
Patty Ris, 87, was eating a hamburger at senior living facility Deupree House when a piece got lodged in her throat.
He said that even though he invented the manoeuvre, he never had to use it on someone who was actually choking.
The doctor was director of surgery at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati in 1974 when he devised the treatment for choking victims that made him a household name.
Before that, he was the first American to devise a perform a total organ replacement and later came up with the 'flutter valve' which drains blood and air out of the chest cavity.
The device saved thousands of soldiers during the Vietnam war, Dr Heimlich's family said.
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