No Choking Around

It's that time of year again...The holidays. When death rates spike. Overall, mortality nationwide rises markedly between December 24 and January 19 each year. According to the National Safety Council, choking is the eighth leading cause of unintentional injury deaths, and nothing exacerbates asphyxiation more than the overeating and excessive drinking roiled by family feasts and office parties, not to mention the hazards of Christmas toys "with small parts not for children under 3 years," associated with Yuletide and the New Year.

Ignoring any insensitive references to the Yellow Peril, an industry
standard seemingly maintains that choking hazard labels for toys
manufactured in China be yellow.

The threat of choking as one of the leading causes of accidental death loomed large a mere four decades ago, until an inspired surgery head in Cincinnati's Jewish Hospital named Henry Heimlich devised a revolutionary anti-choking technique in 1974. As a thoracic surgeon, he developed the life-saving Heimlich maneuver after experimenting on anesthetized beagles. Traditionally, the Red Cross instructed rescuers to respond to choking with Stooge-like backslaps between the shoulder blades, demonized by Heimlich as "death blows," which he was convinced only drove the obstructing objects deeper into the throat. Heimlich's sharp abdominal jabs, performed from behind the choking victim, dislodged chunks of food or foreign objects from the throat.

Apparently, choking victims will be ignored
unless they make this "universal sign."

Henry Heimlich's passion for saving lives first came to light when he was a 21-year-old camp counselor. He was aboard a train bound for New York City from Massachusetts at summer's end when the train was in an accident. Heimlich's quick thinking helped save a critically wounded crew member.  He was featured on the front page of The New York Times, and the Greater New York Safety Council gave him a gold watch.

When Heimlich came up with his anti-choking technique, it was quickly celebrated and widely practiced. He not only became a household name, but his surname was used as a verb, as in "to Heimlich."

Dr. Henry Heimlich demonstrates his
maneuver...kind of...

 The maneuver was so simple, it could be performed by a child.

Heimlich's sudden prestige and celebrity led to an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (pictured below).

The doctor looks on jealously as Johnny Carson
demonstrates his maneuver on the breathtaking
Angie Dickinson.

Five years later, Heimlich demonstrated his technique on "Late Night with David Letterman" (pictured below).

...Apparently with less-than-satisfactory results...

Heimlich's 1979 TV series "H.E.L.P.! - Dr. Henry's Emergency Lessons for People" won a Daytime Emmy Award.

Norman Vincent Peale, the Methodist minister famous for writing The Power of Positive Thinking, declared that Heimlich had likely saved more people than anyone else alive. On December 17, 2016, Dr. Henry Heimlich died after complications from a heart attack in his Cincinnati home. He was 96.

In his 2014 memoir, Heimlich's Maneuver, the doctor wrote, "I know that my celebrity status has helped others...giving them a power they might not have known they possessed." He estimated that the Heimlich maneuver had saved more than 100,000 lives.

Among those thousands have been a number of celebrities in their own right, including future President Ronald Reagan. On a flight in 1976, Reagan started choking on a peanut (political rival Jimmy Carter's attempt at revenge?), and longtime aide Michael Deaver (pictured below, with "Dutch") hurriedly performed the Heimlich maneuver.

In October 1979, then-"Today" cohost Tom Brokaw came to the aid of fellow NBC newsman John Chancellor, who had choked on a piece of Gouda cheese.

John Chancellor poses with Gouda friend Tom Brokaw.

In 1980, Dan Aykroyd executed the Heimlich maneuver on Carrie Fisher after she started gagging on the bud of a Brussels sprout. The actress later recounted, "He saved my life, and then he asked me to marry him." Which is a true story, as Aykroyd proposed to her on the set of "The Blues Brothers," in which Fisher portrayed Belushi's jilted, vengeful girlfriend. The engagement ended when she got back together with former boyfriend Paul Simon.

"The Blues Brothers" costars John Belushi, Carrie Fisher, and
Dan Aykroyd relax off-camera.

New York City Mayor Ed Koch choked on a bite of spare rib at a Chinese restaurant in 1981 and was rescued by a friend who knew how to apply the Heimlich maneuver.

Mayor Ed Koch and Dr. Henry Heimlich demonstrate half of the
universal sign for choking for reporters.

Cher was at a Broadway rehearsal of Ed Graczyk's play "Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" in January 1982 when she gagged on a vitamin. She tried to dislodge the pill with a mouthful of bread, which only worsened the situation. The play's director, Robert Altman, performed the Heimlich maneuver, dislodging the bread. She coughed up the vitamin on the way to the hospital and later said, "My life was saved by Robert Altman."

Cher (above, with Robert Altman), along with the rest of the 
Broadway cast of "Come Back to the 5 and Dime," including
Karen Black, Sandy Dennis, and Kathy Bates, reprised their
roles in director Altman's 1982 film version.  

Justin Timberlake was hailed as a hero in November 2004 after performing the maneuver on a friend choking on a mouthful of peanuts.

The ever vigilant Justin Timberlake, accompanied by his wife,
actress Jessica Biel, keeps an eye out for potential choking victims.

Ellen Barkin (pictured below), the sultry star of "Diner," "Siesta," and "Sea of Love," received the Heimlich maneuver while choking on a piece of shrimp at the Regency Hotel in March 2005...Lucky Heimlich-giver...

Clint Eastwood was at a party just prior to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February 2014 when he used the technique on tournament director Steve John (pictured below), who was choking on cheese.

One historical figure who was choking and didn't receive the Heimlich maneuver but nevertheless survived was President George W. Bush, who was watching football when he passed out and fell off a sofa after gagging on a pretzel in January 2002. He cut his face and bruised his lip on his tumble. When he came to, his dogs Barney and Spot were looking down at him.

George W. recounted, "My mother always said when
you're eating pretzels, chew before you swallow."

The incident happened exactly ten years after Bush's father, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, famously collapsed after choking and vomiting on Japanese Prime Minister Kichi Miyazawa at a state banquet in Tokyo, an international faux pas mercilessly lampooned on the cover of Mad magazine.

Say what you will about the earnest results of the Heimlich maneuver, there is undeniably something inherently comedic about the image of the procedure in action...

...a comic possibility not lost on several filmmakers. The dark comedy "What About Bob?" (1991) cast Bill Murray as a mentally unstable patient obsessed with his overbearingly egotistical psychiatrist, played with unhinged delight by Richard Dreyfuss. Blissfully oblivious to the path of destruction he's forging, Murray eventually causes Dreyfuss to choke, prompting the former to leap into Heimlich action. He saves the doctor's life by violently throwing his weight onto the latter's prostrated figure.

Bill Murray applies the Heimlich maneuver to Richard Dreyfuss
in "What About Bob?" - looked on by Minneapolis-raised Charlie
Korsmo, Julie Hagerty (best known as flight attendant Elaine in
"Airplane!"), and 26-year-old Kathryn Erbe (who would go on to
television success as Detective Eames on "Law & Order: Criminal
Intent," costarring Vincent D'Onofrio).

 A couple years later, Bill Murray had another opportunity to administer the Heimlich maneuver - again and again - in Harold Ramis' "Groundhog Day" (pictured below).

In 1993's "Mrs. Doubtfire," Robin Williams damages his prosthetic makeup as
Euphegenia when giving the Heimlich maneuver to Pierce Brosnan's character, revealing his real identity (pictured below).

Part romantic comedy, part caper flick, 2001's "Heartbreakers" found Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt portraying a mother-daughter con team who target wealthy Gene Hackman for their last swindle. As part of a ruse, Hewitt feigns choking in a restaurant, only to end up really gagging and requiring the Heimlich application, with embarrassing results (pictured below).

Humorous takes on the Heimlich maneuver also occurred in the Bette Midler-Dennis Farina romantic comedy "That Old Feeling," the Ben Stiller-Drew Barrymore comedy "Duplex," the Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore comedy "50 First Dates," the Adam Sandler-produced Rob Schneider comedy "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," "American Pie Presents: Beta House," and, among others, the Steve Martin remake of "The Pink Panther" (pictured below).

On the horror screen, a bad encounter with a drive-in movie cheeseburger in a hell-spawned car calls for Alexandra Paul's rescue with a timely Heimlich encounter.

On the small screen, during Bill Murray''s "Celebrity Corner" segment of "Saturday Night Live's" Weekend Update in November 1978, John Belushi did a hilarious impression of a grotesquely overweight Elizabeth Taylor, who starts choking on a bucket of takeout fried chicken and Heimlichs "herself" to eject a flying flotsam of fowl (pictured below).

In the 1990s, Bill Swerski's Superfans segment of "SNL" featured Chris Farley's Todd O'Connor suddenly choking and requiring the Heimlich maneuver (pictured below). Hilarity ensues as Todd coughs up an entire pork chop.

On an episode of "Family Guy," Griffins' houseguest and Lois' former boyfriend Jerome bakes breakfast scones that cause Lois to start choking. Jerome springs into action with an extended goof on the Heimlich maneuver (pictured below).

"I need some gravitational help!"

"Oh no, her clothes are constricted...as are mine!"

On an April 2011 episode of the Fox animated series "Bob's Burgers" titled "Burger Wars" (pictured below), Bob (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin) comes to the aid of Mr. Fischoeder (voiced by Kevin Kline) after the eccentric landlord starts choking on a hamburger.

A tongue-in-cheek "Bob's Burgers" safety poster with choking first aid instructions was subsequently given away free at San Diego's Comic-Con in 2012.

Safety tips included...

Dr. Henry Heimlich was not without his detractors. Sometimes viewed askance as an egotist with a messianic complex, he championed other health measures and innovations that were deemed reckless, unethical, even plagiaristic by critics. In 2007, the New Republic magazine called him "the P.T. Barnum of medicine...susceptible to the phantom powers of personality and salesmanship." In particular, the doctor's estranged son, Peter Heimlich, referred to his father as "a spectacular con man and serial liar" and called his legacy a "wide-ranging, unseen 50-year history of fraud." In his autobiography, Dr. Heimlich made it a point to thank his son Philip and twin daughters Janet and Elisabeth (pictured below), with no mention of Peter.

In 1994, Henry Heimlich told the Los Angeles Times, "If I have
something that I think is good, how can I let people die?"

Incidentally, Henry Heimlich was the uncle of actor-director Anson Williams, best known for his portrayal of Potsie Weber on "Happy Days." Later a prolific TV director, Williams directed over 30 episodes of the popular ABC Family network drama "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."

Anson was born Anson Williams Heimlich.