An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

HEIMLICH, Henry Judah

1 entries
  • 14057

Pop goes the café coronary.

Emergency Medicine, 6, 154, 1974.

Heimlich proposed and described the eponymous “Heimlich maneuver” for what was then called the “café coronary,” a cause of sudden death seen mostly in restaurants, or at the dinner table, most often on those ingesting a very large chunk of steak after a generous amount of alcoholic beverages.

Heimlich described the maneuver as follows: “Standing behind the victim, the rescuer puts both arms around him just above the belt line, allowing head, arms and upper torso to hang forward. Then grasping his right wrist with his left hand, the rescuer rapidly and strongly presses into the victim’s abdomen forcing the diaphragm upward, compressing the lungs and expelling the obstructing bolus.”

Heimlich further described the maneuver in Henry Heimlich, Milton H. Uhley and Frank Netter (llustrator), "The Heimlich maneuver," Clinical Symposia, Ciba, 31, No. 3, 1979.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)



Subjects: Emergency Medicine