Alumnus Dr. Henry Heimlich lectures Jan. 30

One of the featured events during Cornell's 22nd Health Awareness Week, Jan. 27-31, on campus, will be a public lecture by noted health innovator Dr. Henry J. Heimlich.

Heimlich, a Cornell alumnus, is president of the Heimlich Institute and the inventor of the life-saving Heimlich maneuver. He will give the Health Awareness Week keynote address Thursday, Jan. 30, at 8 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. His talk is free and open to the public and is underwritten by Cornell Fitness Centers. Other sponsors include the Statler Hotel, Gannett Health Center, Cornell's Student Health Alliance and Circle K.

Heimlich '41, M.D. '43, has had a career notable for the abundance of creative, simple solutions he has provided for difficult health and medical problems. While assigned to a U.S. Naval group in China during World War II, Heimlich took a chance with an innovative treatment for victims of trachoma, an incurable bacterial infection of the eyelids that was causing blindness throughout Asia and the Middle East. A mixture of sulfadiazine ground into a base of shaving cream proved effective, and the medical staff used the treatment successfully on hundreds of people.

In the 1950s, a month after completing training in general and chest surgery, Heimlich conceived of an operation to replace the esophagus. After successfully performing the procedure, he presented the results at an American Medical Association meeting in 1961. The procedure, dubbed a hot medical discovery by Life magazine, was the first total organ replacement in history. It is used today to overcome birth defects of the esophagus.

Haunted by the image of a Chinese soldier who died on the operating table after being shot in the chest in 1945, Heimlich set out to develop a valve that would drain blood and air out of the chest cavity. In 1964 the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve was introduced. The lives of thousands of American and Vietnamese soldiers shot in the chest were saved by the device, barely 5 inches long. It was manufactured for just $1 at that time, and today more than 250,000 Heimlich valves are used worldwide each year to treat patients with chest wounds or following surgery.

In 1974 Heimlich published findings on what was to become the Heimlich maneuver. A week later, the first choking victim was saved by the method. Since its introduction, the Heimlich maneuver has saved 50,000 people in the United States alone from choking or drowning.

In 1980 Heimlich conceived of the Heimlich MicroTrach, a tiny tube inserted into the trachea at the base of the neck under local anesthesia. Quickly approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the MicroTrach has many advantages over other methods of oxygen delivery. During the 1980s, Heimlich also developed a method for teaching stroke victims and other patients who were fed through a tube to swallow again.

For more information on Health Awareness Week, visit this Web site: http://healthweek.cornell.edu/events.