Henry Heimlich Heimlich's medical assistant in China. The design of the valve allows air and blood to drain from the chest cavity in order to allow a collapsed lung to re-expand. The invention was credited with saving the lives of hundreds of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Heimlich first published his views about the maneuver in a June 1974 informal article in "Emergency Medicine" entitled, "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary". On June 19, 1974, the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" reported that retired restaurant-owner Isaac Piha used the procedure to rescue a choking victim, Irene Bogachus, in Bellevue, Washington. From 1976 to 1985, the
Henry Heimlich thrusts, a method first recommended in a 1976 study by Charles Guildner, with results duplicated in a year 2000 study by Audun Langhelle. The 2006 guidelines also eliminated the phrase "Heimlich maneuver" and replaced it with "abdominal thrust". Allegations of case fraud have dogged Heimlich's promotion of abdominal thrusts as a treatment for drowning. The 2005 drowning rescue guidelines of the American Heart Association did not include citations of Heimlich's work and warn against the use of the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue as unproven and dangerous, due to its risk of vomiting leading to aspiration. In 2003, Heimlich's colleague