OCTOBER T T ac t r in w > w V i \ w M i M ^ ^ ^ 2,1985 A9 Tff flg jgj gjC TMP TOT ■ — Inder the fair use provisions of the copyright law of the United States (17 USC 107), this single| copy was produced tor r e f c^ ~ ~ ; « ^ ~ fr om S r Y i n Mftuscripts £| l* rc hi vm Yal e ^ v a - r t y Li br ary, P.O. Box 20 82 40, 1 2 8 Walttjptf, New H a p Ci 0652^824.. Un le ss MJ i ' ^ T m -M ^ y m n l i ^ r ^ s l ^, ' •i(). i»./ »^r_L ^.i t^m^sz he i renroduced trL an v fo A: Ai l e d bv an I nautnorizecLper son; or pi &£ M -A Surgeon General Calls It 'Only Method' to Aid Choking Victims By Cristine Russell Washington Post Staff Writer Ab ou t five years ago. Dr. C. Evere tt Ko op saw his young grandson choking while eating. He quickly moved behind the child, put his arms around him and, with a quick thrust of his clasped fist into the boy's ab domen, dislodged a large chunk of meat that "shot about four feet across the room." Yesterday, as the U.S. surgeon general, Koop en dorsed the life-saving Heimlich Maneuver "as the only method that should be used for the treatment of chok ing from foreign body airway obstruction* and prodded the American Red Cross and American Heart Associ ation to move more <ju ickly hi adopting it exclusively. Noting that "more than .3,000 people die from chok ing in the United States each year,* mostly while eat ing, Koop said that "the best rescue technique in any choking situation is the Hfeimlich Maneuver." He urged that other methods be dropped immediate ly as "haza rdous, ev en lethal ," particularly the tradition al use o f sharp bl ows to t he back that he said can drive a foreign object even deeper into the throat. In doing so, Koop jumped into the middle of a long- running controversy in the public health community over the place of the Heimlich Maneuver in first aid procedures. The technique is nam ed after Dr. Henry J. Heimlich, a physician at Cincinnati's Xavier University who de veloped the life-saving "hug* in the early 1970s and has since widely promoted it as the best method of saving a choking victim. But the health organizations who advise the public and the medical profession on first aid have been slower to adopt his stance and for the past decade have rec ommended that four sharp blows to the back be at tempted first before the "abdominal thrust." In July, after a national conference reviewing their guidelines, the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association made a joint announcement that the advisory panel had recommended "exclusive" use of the Heimlich abdominal thrust. Their press releases said that the change was being made to s imp li fy teaching of first aid, but maintained that both back blows and the abdominal thrust are effective. Yesterday, spokesmen for both groups repeated that view, saying that the recommendation on the Heimlich Maneuver is still under review and is not expected to be adopted officially until early next year. * i 1 \ : "Dr. Koop and Dr. Heimlich are not giving the pro cess quite the chance it deserves," responded Red Cross senior vice president Dr. Lewel lys Barker. Koop said in an interview that he felt the need to act more q uic kly after receiving lett er s fro m Hei mli ch an d University of Cincinnati professor Edward A. Patrick, as well as his knowledge of the value of the procedure. "I felt that I couldn't stand around and wait." Patrick, who has perform ed rese arch showin g that 't he bac k slap can dr ive a foreign obje ct downward , com plained to Koop that the "lives of many Americans are endangered as the result of Red Cross first aid instruc tion" and said "it is urgent that you inform the public through the media of the back slap danger." Heimlich said by* telephone that he was concerned not only by the slowness of the first aid groups' re sponse, but by their "denial that the back slap is un safe." His procedure uses the large volume of air in a chok ing victim's lungs to help expel a foreign object if a res cuer presses sharply and repeatedly on the victim's ab domen with one balled fist wrapped in the opposite hand. The blo w is administered at a point just abov e the na vel but below the rib cage and the diaphragm. It can be used on a standing or sitting victim who is conscious or uncon scious as well as be self-administered. Whi le it can be used on children, Koop said yesterday that "back slapping is still the recommended method for treating children under 1 year o f age held in a hea d-d own posi tion." Under the fair use provisions of the copyright law of the United States ( from material in Manusc ripts and Archives, Yale University Librar y, [\C Unless permission is granted, neither this copy nor the words on it may I Of placed in the collections of any institution or individual I $3333* UUSTRATIO* TAKEM FROM TW. MOMU CtrS H«* GU OC TO