Watch: Comic Eddie Izzard offers an unreliable explanation of the origin of the Heimlich manoeuvre
Henry Heimlich, who is widely credited with inventing the life-saving technique, died on Saturday.
Henry J Heimlich, the man credited with inventing the technique for saving a person choking on food, died on Saturday at the age of 96. The Heimlich manoeuvre has been estimated to have saved 100,000 lives.
But how exactly did the surgeon and medical researcher, who also developed numerous other pioneering techniques such as the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve, come to develop the eponymous technique?
English stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard might have an answer to what made the surgeon’s name “famous in restaurants”. Izzard doesn’t believe it was a “Eureka!” moment. “He was German. He was organised,” the comic artist offers by way of explanation.
And so, Izzard suggests, the doctor might have conducted experiments until he reached epiphany. “Okay, Hans, I want you to swallow this golf ball.”
There’s one problem with the technique though, according to Izzard. “Trouble is, it’s very difficult to say Heimlich manoeuvre when you are choking to death.”