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RIP Dr. Henry Heimlich, Inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver (bbc.com)
tomhath quotes the BBC: Dr Heimlich died at the age of 96. He invented the lifesaving technique, which uses abdominal thrusts to clear a person's airway, in 1974. In May he used the technique himself to save a woman at his retirement home. He dislodged a piece of meat with a bone in it from the airway of an 87-year-old woman, telling the BBC: "I didn't know I really could do it until the other day."
Absolutely agreed.
From the article: notable people saved by this maneuver include former President Ronald Reagan, pop star Cher, former New York mayor Edward Koch and Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, Carrie Fisher, Jack Lemmon and Marlene Dietrich. An estimated 100,000 people have been saved in the US alone. Heimlich even saved a woman with the technique himself once. He said that he always wondered if he'd be able to perform the maneuver himself.
It's nice to know his name is forever linked with helping to save so many lives. RIP, and condolences to his family.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Slapping is the first stage.
"Encourage the patient to cough" is also in there.
But Heimlich - because of the possibility of causing internal damage - is the last resort when, if you don't try it, they are going to die anyway. It's literally the thing you do in the knowledge that if it doesn't work, they're dead anyway and there's nothing more you can do.
And it's not prudish - demonstrating Heimlich is rife with hands reaching blindly into places and causing damage if you're too rough. It's like CPR (again, last resort), you NEVER actually demonstrate the force of CPR that you would do to a real patient - CPR smashes broken ribs into lungs but that's better than dying.
As such, demoing with big rough guys on tiny waifs of girls is potentially dangerous, especially if there's larking about.
As anyone who runs martial arts or first aid clubs will tell you, it's not the experienced people who will hurt you. It's the novice that has no idea the power, extension or force of their movements, and no control over them.