The 96-year-old doctor who invented the Heimlich maneuver got a chance to use the life-saving technique for the first time — and he didn’t choke!
Dr. Henry Heimlich saved an elderly woman choking on her hamburger dinner earlier this week at their Cincinnati senior living center.
He was one of 125 residents at the Deupree House enjoying dinner in the dining room Monday when he realized 87-year-old Patty Ris was choking.
The nonagenarian, who has been living at the home for six years and still regularly works out at the swimming pool, jumped out of his seat and hustled over to Ris — beating one of the center’s staffers to her.
The staffer was prepared to administer the Heimlich himself, but moved out of the way when he saw the doctor was already in position.
“It is Dr. Heimlich,” the worker conceded to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Though Heimlich had demonstrated the abdominal thrust technique many times, the retired chest surgeon had never actually put the first-aid procedure that was named after him to work.
But on Monday, for the first time since it was created back in 1974, he did it — and he was filled with a sense of pride when Ris hacked up the hamburger and started breathing again.
“When I used it and she recovered quickly, it made me appreciate how wonderful it has been to be able to save all those lives,” Heimlich told the daily newspaper Thursday.
Ris thinks of Heimlich as her guardian angel, penning a note to him that said, “God put me in this seat next to you.”
And now, Heimlich isn’t just considered the hero of the senior home, shocking his son with the dramatic rescue.
“Just the fact that a 96-year-old man could perform that is impressive,” Phil Heimlich told the Enquirer.