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Friday, September 01, 2006
Dr. Henry Heimlich is under increasing fire for his decades-long campaign to make the Heimlich maneuver the first step in drowning rescue.
The American Heart Association takes the rare step of singling it out as "unnecessary and potentially dangerous" in new guidelines for this year. Despite Heimlich's nearly 30-year campaign, every other authority to evaluate the Heimlich maneuver for drowning has recommended against using it before mouth-to-mouth breathing, if at all.
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There are two main reasons, say the heart association, each of the world's rescue advisory boards and many academic experts on drowning:
• It delays putting oxygen back into the victim's lungs, which is the first priority in a drowning because brain damage can begin in four minutes.
• It increases the risk of vomiting, which can cause choking or lung damage.
They're wrong, says Heimlich. He contends that drowning victims die because their lungs fill with water, that rescue breathing is useless until the water is removed and that the maneuver removes it best.
But an American Red Cross research review in 2000 found "no scientific literature available supporting the concepts that near-drowning victims aspirate large volumes of water," that any water in the lungs obstructs the airway, that it must be removed, "or that the Heimlich maneuver (abdominal thrust) is an effective and safe method for removing aspirated water from the airway and lungs."
Critics won't discourage Heimlich, he said. "We're here to save lives."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2129 or klamb@DaytonDailyNews.com.
