Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

In this letter, Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS and President of the National Council Against Health Fraud, urges The Enquirer to print a retraction concerning the bad information they have publicized concerning Pool Safety.

Editors:

In yesterday’s Enquirer (Saturday 5/27/2006) an feature promoted use of the Heimlich Maneuver (abdominal thrusts) for treating near-drowning—submersion where the victim is successfully saved.  References suggested this is approved and promoted by various governmental bodies.  This is false.

Abdominal trusting for drowning is promoted by only one source, Henry Heimlich.  Heimlich offers no evidence that this is safe or effective, and, last year, when I wrote him, phoned him and faxed him for any evidence of its safety or effectiveness he supplied none.

In the large graphic on resuscitation for near-drowning the Enquirer has placed the Heimlich Maneuver in the first position (on the left) and given it equal status with CPR, suggesting to your readers that it is safe and effective, and even superior to CPR.

There is no convincing evidence anywhere that the Heimlich Maneuver is safe or effective for near drowning.  This is ample evidence that it is dangerous and can result in death.  That is why the American Heart Association has removed the Heimlich Maneuver as a treatment for near-drowning.  This is not a matter of debate among medical scientists, it is a matter of consensus based on lack of evidence of benefit, safety or effectiveness and the physiological facts regarding drowning/near-drowning.

By promoting the Heimlich Maneuver for this purpose the Enquirer has not only failed to do its homework, but has placed its readers, and their children, in jeopardy.  More than that, the Enquirer has been recklessly irresponsible.  By this email NCAHF is putting you on notice of this defect in your editing.  We urge you to immediately disclaim your dangerous advice to readers and publish a retraction.  We urge you to notify all the other Cincinnati media of this error, and get the word out that the Heimlich Maneuver for drowning is dangerous, not recommended and wrong.

The Enquirer has routinely failed to call Henry Heimlich to task for his unethical and immoral human experiments on HIV, Lyme disease and cancer.  Similarly you have failed to report that his promotion of the so-called Heimlich Maneuver for drowning and asthma is medically unsound and dangerous.  His illicit experiments on humans continue and now the Enquirer has become party to them.  A thorough investigative report is in order.

Your piece on treatment of drowning was not news but advocacy.  Should one person die as a result of your promotion of this unproven and dangerous nonsense you will not be in a defensible position. I urge you to act responsibly and retract this piece immediately.

Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS
President, National Council Against Health Fraud
Peabody, Massachusetts

http://www.ncahf.org

Thank you for reading (and printing from) The Cincinnati Beacon.