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Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

bbc.com

31–40 of 82 posts

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#31

For all of his ups and downs on a personal level, the guy has probably indirectly (and now directly) saved a ton of lives.

No. There is no evidence to support the technique at all, and it is no longer recommended in most parts of the world.

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... but then God surely can't be omnibenevolent!? (But perhaps that doctrine's been abandoned?) I'm just pointing out the contradictions in "classic" Christianity. Regardless of all that, unless we somehow come up with a coherent and agreed-upon definition of God, I don't suspect anyone's mind will be changed by logical argument. And, thus, I defeat my own argument. EDIT: I mean, it was Epicurus (~2000 years ago!) wh…

> b) belief in God is not determined by rational reasoning. There are no rational arguments for a belief in God, so this is the answer. All belief in any gods is irrational by nature.

I think I might agree if you changed "belief" to "faith"[1]. "Belief" can be informed by evidence (flawed or not), but "faith" is explicit belief-without-evidence. The latter -- I agree -- is a terrible idea, but presumably some of the people who have a "belief" in a higher being have some sort of evidence[2]. That doesn't mean that I would automatically dismiss them, but I would argue that they perhaps haven't learned enough about how to critically evaluate evidence.

EDIT: A mildly interesting observation: There's one kind of evidence that believers use that's actually routinely accepted in a court of law, namely Eyewitness Testimony (e.g. "I saw the Virin Mary!" in the religious context). More interestingly, Eyewitness Testimony has been shown to be incredibly unreliable for finding out what really happened.

[1] The distinction is somewhat technical, but it's a Big Deal(TM) in Philosophy.

[2] Though, it's probably not the sort of evidence that's accepted by anyone else. (Revelation, that kind of thing.)

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#33
Heimlich means well, but the popularity of his maneuver is due more to his relentless promotional skills, and not to sound research. If someone is choking, it's best to slap them hard on the back a few times.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.05.05/heimlich-05...

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#34
post #16

Looks like it's the second time he's used the maneuver: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36400365

Well that surely trumps the local source. We'll change the URL from http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/05/26/henry-heimli....

It would be amusing if there were a long history of 'first times'.

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#36

It isn't a "life-saving technique", it is bunk: "There was never any science here. Heimlich overpowered science all along the way with his slick tactics and intimidation, and everyone, including us at the AHA, caved in."

It isn't though, if you read past the first paragraph in the wikipedia history of the technique.

"The European Resuscitation Council and the Mayo Clinic recommend alternating between five back slaps and five abdominal thrusts in cases of severe airway obstructions.[1][2]"

I hardly think they'd still recommend the maneuver still if it was "bunk".

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#37

Heimlich means well, but the popularity of his maneuver is due more to his relentless promotional skills, and not to sound research. If someone is choking, it's best to slap them hard on the back a few times. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.05.05/heimlich-05...

That article says nothing about the Heimlich maneuver for choking. Only that you shouldn't use it on a drowning victim. Most sources seem to recommend the Heimlich maneuver for choking victims, possibly in conjunction with blows to the back between the shoulder blades, but only in cases of complete airway obstruction.

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#38
post #5

He's also kinda a crackpot: http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/09/22/the-strange-story-of-hen...

I'd go a bit further than 'crackpot' in describing someone who literally gave Malaria to people with AIDS on purpose.

It's actually not quite as crazy as it sounds. Malaria was used successfully to treat Neurosyphilis.

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#39
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this irks me as well. Why does this even have to come into play. Why not just thank Dr. Heimlich and give him all the well deserved credit? This lady could have just as easily been one of the millions of people since the maneuver was invented to have not been sitting next to Dr. Heimlich when they began to choke.

While I completely understand why this is an annoying point of view, the apparent contradiction is well understood. The official theology of many religions is that everything good comes from God, everything bad comes from people. God gave people some freedom, and they abused it to create all the problems of the world, which he is constantly working to correct, but he leaves a lot of the negative effects of our choice…

> ...everything bad comes from people.

You forgot the Devil, he gets blamed every so often.

Re: Dr Heimlich saves choking woman with manoeuvre he invented

#40

It isn't a "life-saving technique", it is bunk: "There was never any science here. Heimlich overpowered science all along the way with his slick tactics and intimidation, and everyone, including us at the AHA, caved in."

Interesting, that quote lead me to the article in Cincinatti Magazine (https://books.google.com/books?id=rcMqOFGzb_oC&lpg=PA92&ots=...) which is actually a bit mixed.

Reading the article it seems the author admits that it works, and the "new way" starts with back slaps and then goes into using "abdominal thrusts" (aka "The Heimlich maneuver") But between the original published idea and this article really it says more that it might not be the most effective technique, it never says it is "bunk"

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