The Cincinnati Beacon - Heimlich Maneuver Week, Part I: Episcopal Church Leaders Arranged African AIDS Experiments - Cincinnati blog, Cincinnati news, Cincinnati politics

Friday, April 06, 2007

Heimlich Maneuver Week, Part I: Episcopal Church Leaders Arranged African AIDS Experiments

Photo of the Rt. Rev. Herbert Thompson Jr. courtesy of here.

The Heimlich Institute at Deaconess invites visitors to “Get Involved with National Heimlich Maneuver Week, April 16-22, 2006.” That might be tougher to celebrate this year since the Red Cross replaced the maneuver with backslaps as the first response to choking and ABC-TV reported that the Heimlich Institute is shuttered.

From the ABC-TV report:

The I-Team visited the impressive-sounding Heimlich Institute, which exists to promote Heimlich and his maneuver, on the accounting floor of a Cincinnati office. We found the office, with no one in it, the phone answered by a machine. The hospital that houses Heimlich’s so-called Institute did not answer the I-Team’s numerous requests for information about its relationship with Dr. Heimlich.

This week’s Enquirer obituary for John Gall, longtime Heimlich Institute president, includes the fact that he and Heimlich worked together on Heimlich’s sicko human experiments on African AIDS patients. But here’s the part that caught our eye:

In his later years, Mr. Gall and Heimlich turned their attention to the AIDS epidemic. “We had a meeting with (Episcopal) Archbishop Herbert Thompson, who helped us to make contact with parishes in Africa to spread our AIDS program,” Heimlich said.

Wait a minute. Reverend Thompson and the Episcopal Church were helping to arrange Heimlich’s warped experiments? More from the Spring 1999 issue of “Caring World”, the Heimlich Institute’s newsletter:

Dr. Heimlich had earlier met with Rt. Rev. Herbert Thompson, Jr., Episcopal Bishop of Southern Ohio, to discuss the African AIDS epidemic. Bishop Thompson wrote to Episcopal archbishops in eleven African countries to urge “Dr. Heimlich is especially interested in bringing his work to the attention of leaders in the nations of Africa, which have felt the scourge of AIDS the most,” Rev. Thompson wrote. “Dr. Heimlich sees malariotherapy as an inexpensive and effective way to deal with this deadly disease that has had such a catastrophic effect on African peoples.”

Beacon readers are familiar with the Heimlich Institute’s history of deliberately infecting Third World patients with malaria. So are leading bioethicists and a World Health Organization report which cited Heimlich’s “malariotherapy” experiments in China as a modern medical atrocity. The CIRCARE bioethics website provides an astounding compendium of Heimlich’s horrorshow. As for what he’s been up to in Africa, this from Tom Francis’s November 2005 Radar Magazine article:

Mekbib Wondewossen is an Ethiopian immigrant who makes his living renting out cars in the San Francisco area, but in his spare time he works for Dr. Heimlich, doing everything from “recruiting the patients to working with the doctors here and there and everywhere,” Wondewossen says. The two countries he names are Ethiopia and the small equatorial nation of Gabon, on Africa’s west coast. “The Heimlich Institute is part of the work there—the main people, actually, in the research,” Wondewossen says. “They’re the ones who consult with us on everything. They tell us what to do….We go to an epidemic area where there is a lot of malaria, and then we look for patients that have HIV too. We find commercial sex workers or people who play around in that area.”

You can read more about Reverend Thompson in his memoir, “What’s a Black Man Doing in the Episcopal Church?” Another question might be “What’s a Black Archbishop doing arranging ‘Constant Gardener’ experiments?”

Rev. Thompson died last year, but maybe his successor, the Rt. Rev. Kenneth L. Price Jr, could answer that question. So could Joseph J. Dehner, longtime Heimlich Institute lawyer. Dehner is also Chancellor of the local Episcopal diocese.

Until recently, Mr. Dehner was also a longtime board member of the Heimlich Institute and a “malariotherapy” booster. In a November 7, 1994 Cincinnati Post article, Heimlich Using Malaria to Treat AIDS Patients, Dehner compares Heimlich to Galileo. (In the same article, internationally-recognized AIDS expert Dr. Anthony Fauci denounced Heimlich’s research as “quite dangerous and scientifically unsound.”)

Dehner’s enthusiasm appears undiminished. He nominated Heimlich for the 2005 Cincinnati Business Courier’s Health Care Hero Lifetime Achievement award.

Given his decades of cheerleading for Dr. Heimlich, Dehner should have no problem explaining what his church is doing arranging experiments on African prostitutes.

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anon says:
06 Apr 2007 at 10:42 am | #

Dehner’s wife is an Episcopal reverend. From the 2007 Directory of the Diocese of Southern Ohio:

Julnes-Dehner, Noel S.
Status: Extraparochial
E-Mail: julnes@cinci.rr.com
Position: Chaplain to Clergy Spouses
Spouse: Joseph Dehner

DEHNER, Joseph Julnes, Esq.
Chancellor of the diocese; 412 Trustee;
Constitutions and Canons, chair
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
513.651.6949(O)
513.651.6981(F)
Frost, Brown & Todd, 2200 PNC Center, 201 E.
Fifth Street, Cincinnati 45202

Chruch Lady says:
06 Apr 2007 at 11:00 am | #

Now Isn’t that special?

Whoooo Doggies says:
06 Apr 2007 at 12:22 pm | #

How can we “Celebrate” something that no longer exist?
Think Mayor Mallory will have a huge celebration on Fountain Square for a non-existant thing? If that is the case- then I want an Easter Bunny Proclamation for Sunday!
Line up to the right for a real Easter Bunny signature-yes they exist just like the Heimlich! Talk me into it- keep the talk alive- maybe I’ll believe it- someday.
Now what about the 1000’s of children that will never live to see an Easter because Dr. Heimlich and his “research”?
This is such a scam-and the media is so whimpy not to touch it- This has major awards written all over it. Shame on you Enquirer, Shame on you all 4 TV stations. Damn you for not telling the truth.

anon says:
06 Apr 2007 at 12:58 pm | #

This week’s Enquirer obituary for John Gall, longtime Heimlich Institute president….

It appears the HI doesn’t have a president at the moment. From their 2005 IRS 990 (page 5):

Part V-A Current Officers, Directors, Trustees, and Key Employees

HENRY HEIMLICH, MD, TRUSTEE
PHILIP M. HEIMLICH, VICE-PRESIDENT
BARBAR LOHR, SECRETARY
E. ANTHONY WOODS, CHAIRMAN
JOHN DUNN, TRUSTEE

Lohr, Woods, and Dunn are all Deaconess people, so Deaco controls the voting majority of the corporation.

Mr. Gall has passed, but what happened to everybody who was on the board of the HI in 2004 like Dick Weiland and internationally-recognized biochemist Piotr Chomczynski?

Justin Quayle says:
06 Apr 2007 at 01:01 pm | #

Here’s the price list of RNA reagents for Piotr Chomczynski’s company, Molecular Research Center, Inc. With so many diseases plaguing the world, like the African AIDS crisis for example, there must be good money in the reagent business.

anon says:
06 Apr 2007 at 02:01 pm | #

Re: the obituary for John Gall. Is there anything sadder than having your main accomplishment in life be the presidency of the Heimlich Institute and helping Heimlich make contacts in Africa for his insane experiments? What a depressing and pathetic point of “pride” for an obituary.

Sieg Heimlich says:
06 Apr 2007 at 02:10 pm | #

Why don’t you ask these alleged Christians how their faith fits into arranging Mengele-style experiments on African prostitutes? Ask the Diocese to produce the names of medical professionals they consulted prior to getting involved in this disgusting, exploitative “research.” Which Institutional Review Board was involved in overseeing this project?

Deaconess owns 100% of the Heimlich Institute so they’re legally responsible.

Keep the heat on, then report ‘em all to the Office of the Inspector General at Health and Human Services and other agencies.

Unmitigated Gall says:
06 Apr 2007 at 02:48 pm | #

The Episcopal Church is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

From the website of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) HIV/AIDS TB & Malaria Network:

Our mission is to respect the dignity of all people by:

* Securing the human rights of those infected by HIV/AIDS, and giving unconditional support
* Improving the health and prolonging the lives of infected people
* Accompanying the dying, those who mourn and those who live on
* Celebrating life
* Nurturing community, and
* Advocating for justice

Anon says:
06 Apr 2007 at 08:51 pm | #

Church of Our Savior in Mt. Auburn welcomes the GLBT worshippers & advocates for those suffering with HIV/AIDS. Rev. Paula Jackson does a fabulous job.

In addition, the parish offers GED classes, along with counseling & assistance with felons released from the prison system.

My Mother is of the Episcopalian faith. There were times when I drove her to services & other events. I’d sit in a neutral area & work on my papers or something because I’m not into all that organized religion business. Everytime I saw this late Bishop Thompson, I just couldn’t warm up to him.

I respected him as a person of the cloth. I admired him as a black man who toiled his way through the ranks of the church & broke color & culture barriers. But, there was something about him that wouldn’t allow me to outright accept him in full honesty.

I believe I now have the answer. May the Universe forgive him his sins against humankind. That includes our sisters of other colors who saw no other way to get food on the table that they had to prostitute to provide.

cincysue says:
06 Apr 2007 at 09:48 pm | #

For such a small burg, Cincinnati has certainly spawned its share of internationally renowned demons. The Lindners, Heimlichs, Keatings to name a few. Each of these families have made the world more miserable for their being in it. And puzzling though it is, they are considered by some to be the pillars of society. The “some” being those that have no regard for anyone but the rich and consider everyone insignificant, disposable. They make another notorious Cincinnatian, Charles Manson, look like a choirboy.

anon says:
07 Apr 2007 at 12:09 pm | #

cincysue’s comment about local corruption dovetails with Whoooo Doggies’ comment about local media simply ignoring this and other Heimlich stories.

There’s no question that Dr. Heimlich’s history of medical quackery is bizarre. What intelligent person wouldn’t raise an eyebrow when someone claims they can cure AIDS by infecting patients with malaria?

But read this April 15, 1999 Post article by Barry Horstman. Heimlich’s experiments had been strongly denounced by the CDC and had been the subject of a 1994 front page LA Times article about Heimlich hustling donations from gullible Hollywood stars. In the LA article, Heimlich’s medical claims are thoroughly denounced by AIDS experts and one anti-quack expert calls him “a mad scientist.” So how does Horstman report this five years later in Cincinnati?

(Heimlich’s) latest crusade - treating AIDS by injecting patients with malaria, which stimulates a strong immune system response - again has him at odds with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health organizations. But Heimlich says the initial test results have been promising.

Did Horstman ask to see the “promising” results? Apparently not. Also, the way he wrote this, Horstman puts a local quack on par with a US government agency. Think about that.

The rest of the article is equally sycophantic, but no need to belabor the point. If you live in Cincinnati, you know that local media has been snugly tucked into the collective ass of the Heimlich family for as long as anyone can remember. A good question is why?

An alert media helps monitor the kind of inbred corruption cincysue’s talking about. We can’t force the local press to do a better job, but thanks to the Beacon and other blogs like NewsAche, we can finally call attention to unreported stories like this one about the Episcopal Church apparently playing a key role in setting up an outrageous human rights abuse.

Wowie says:
07 Apr 2007 at 12:10 pm | #

Forgot that Chuck was from Cincy! Thanks Sue!
Now I wonder how much of the “family” blood got spilled into so many of the other infamous families in town!
What a joke- and they all profess to be so religious.

Where is Nate? says:
07 Apr 2007 at 07:30 pm | #

Hey Nate,
This is selling people into Slavery- Where are you on this one big guy? You are always spouting off on local topics, but this has huge national and international implications and it is nothing more than out and out slavery.
Where are you NATE?

anon says:
07 Apr 2007 at 09:49 pm | #

Where are you NATE?

After this scorcher about his boss’s drug habit, he may be busy updating his resume and/or preparing responses for investigators.

Sweeterex says:
12 Nov 2008 at 07:50 am | #

Thanks for information..,Please keep sharing with us??