The Man Behind the Maneuver
In the 1970s, choking became national news: thousands were choking to death, leading to more accidental deaths than guns. Nobody knew what to do. Until a man named Henry Heimlich came along with a big idea. Since then, thousands and thousands -- maybe even millions -- have been rescued by the Heimlich maneuver. Yet the story of the man who invented it may not have such a happy ending.
- Duration
- 24m
- Broadcast on
- 05 Mar 2013
- Audio Format
- other
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In the 1970s, choking became national news: thousands were choking to death, leading to more accidental deaths than guns. Nobody knew what to do. Until a man named Henry Heimlich came along with a big idea. Since then, thousands and thousands -- maybe even millions -- have been rescued by the Heimlich maneuver. Yet the story of the man who invented it may not have such a happy ending.
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-Wait, wait, you're listening to Radio Lab. -Radio Lab from WNYC and NPR. -Hey, I'm Jada Boomerang. -I'm Robert Krollich. -This is Radio Lab. -This is our podcast and we're going to be, we're going to tell you a tale. It's actually about a person that we think we deeply admire. If, by the way, you even pause long enough to admire him at all. -Yeah. -And the story comes from our own by Walters. -This one, it's kind of weird, I'm going to start with just talking about myself. -Okay. -I think this is the closest I've ever come to dying. -Really? -It happened when I was 11, so I was in sixth grade. I was at lunch in the cafeteria, lots of kids, milling about, and I was sitting at the table with my best friend, eating my little packed lunch that my mom had made for me, and I was eating an apple, and all of a sudden, I couldn't breathe. -You started, you were choking? -Yeah. And I put my hand up in the air, none of the cafeteria ladies came over and I put both my hands in the air, and they finally came over and dragged me across the hall to the nurse's office, and... -You're choking all the way to the... -All the way to the nurse's office, yeah. -Gasping for air kind of choking? -No, just totally clogged up. And I get over there, and someone calls the paramedics. -Wait, how much time has passed since you've breathed? -Like two, two and a half minutes, I think? -That long? -Yeah. -Wow. -But then the nurse grabs me, wraps her arms around me, jerks me really hard into the ribcage, and this apple peel shoots right across the room. -Nice. -Like a projectile kind of... -BAM! -Yeah, it was like a cartoon. I mean, I don't actually remember, I have a terrible memory, but I'll piece this together from, you know, talking to my mom. And this story is just this thing that's been around, you know, I've told it a million times, it comes up with family gatherings, and I don't know, maybe a year ago, I was reading some things online about the Heimlich Nuver, I don't even know how I ended up there, and I realized I didn't know who actually is Heimlich. I didn't know anything about him, like who is this guy who invented this maneuver that saved my life? And that's when I discovered a story I totally did not expect. -Hello. Hello, it's Patrick.
Transcription truncated.
In the 1970s, choking became national news: thousands were choking to death, leading to more accidental deaths than guns. Nobody knew what to do. Until a man named Henry Heimlich came along with a big idea. Since then, thousands and thousands -- maybe even millions -- have been rescued by the Heimlich maneuver. Yet the story of the man who invented it may not have such a happy ending.