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Saturday, December 26, 2009
Obituary: Edward A. Patrick MD PhD, co-developer of the Heimlich maneuver (1937-2009)
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
(Photo: Dr. Henry Heimlich, left, seated; Dr. Edward Patrick, arms behind back - circa 1986)
Today the Hamilton County Coroner’s office confirmed Dr. Edward A. Patrick - co-developer of the Heimlich maneuver and 30-year colleague of Dr. Henry Heimlich - has died. From the truth is stranger than fiction department, the news comes just days after a Cincinnati appellate court upheld the findings of a lower court by tossing out Dr. Patrick’s long-running defamation suit against a Cleveland newspaper.
Here’s the fascinating 2004 cover story by reporter Thomas Francis that sparked the case: “Playing Doctor: Lying on a resume isn’t a crime - except when a doctor does it. Luckily for Edward Patrick, the Ohio Medical Board is forgiving.” Patrick lost his case because the courts determined the facts in the article were substantially true and that Patrick’s evidence was “wholly insufficient” to disprove them.
Toledo Legal News has a first-rate report by Keith Arnold about last week’s court decision. Here’s an excerpt. (See below for the non-legalese, very readable 8-page ruling.):
A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found 72-year-old Dr. Edward Patrick failed to demonstrate the threshold requirement of falsity regarding the gist of a story -“Playing Doctor” - published by Cleveland Scene.
Because of a supervising doctor’s refusal to sign Patrick’s residency certificate, another doctor’s disclaimer of any knowledge of Patrick’s training beyond the one year at a Cincinnati hospital, and that hospital’s refusal to certify the doctor had obtained any training in emergency medicine while there, the district court found Patrick’s own documents, demonstrate the article was substantially true.
“And the record supports the district court’s conclusion that although Dr. Patrick made some attempt to rebut this evidence, the rebuttal evidence is wholly insufficient to make the showing of falsity necessary to survive summary judgment,” Chief Judge Alice Batchelder wrote for the court.
Patrick, who practices emergency medicine in Cincinnati, began his non-medical graduate education by earning a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1966, and a medical degree from Indiana University in 1974, case summary began. The next part of Patrick’s medical training, which involves his training at Cincinnati’s Jewish Hospital under the tutelage of famed Dr. Henry Heimlich is the subject of some dispute. In addition to claiming partial credit for the choking treatment that bears Heimlich’s name - an issue unrelated to this case - the details of Patrick’s residency remain unclear. His position, medical field and work locations listed on his curricula vitae were inconsistent, the record indicated.
The coroner’s office won’t verify Dr. Patrick’s date of death, but Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan Hospital confirms that Dr. Patrick was a patient in the ICU last week. According to sources, he died on Christmas Eve.
This is only the latest twist in a 30-year mystery surrounding the genesis of what came to be known as “the Heimlich maneuver” or as Dr. Patrick called it in a 1995 journal article, “The Patrick-Heimlich Method.” The plot thickened in May 2003, when Dr. Patrick issued a public statement (with Dr. Heimlich’s name attached) that he was the uncredited co-developer of the stomach squeeze. (Punctuation, bold from original.):
A reporter from the Cincinnati Enquirer walked up the driveway of my home on May 19, 2003….. The reporter.. (indicated) he was looking for Dr. Edward Patrick as he (the reporter) is doing a story on Dr. Patrick and Dr. Henry Heimlich. He asked why I did not get proper credit for the development of what now is called the Heimlich maneuver.
I have the greatest respect for Dr. Heimlich, his work, and his contributions. He himself once told me that I have not received proper credit for the development of what has become known as the Heimlich maneuver. In any case, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to help develop a treatment for choking that has saved many lives.Many articles have been written about Dr. Heimlich and myself, and each of us have published numerous papers, books and given presentations at conferences. Although those articles are available for review, it is appropriate under the circumstances that I provide the following information.
I have always viewed that Dr. Heimlich and I worked together to develop what has become known as the Heimlich maneuver just as the Wright brothers worked together to develop the first flying machine.
For thirty years, Drs. Heimlich and Patrick worked closely on a variety of projects and co-authored articles like this one posted on the website of the Heimlich Institute, “The Heimlich maneuver: best technique for saving any choking victim’s life” by Henry J. Heimlich, MD, ScD & Edward A. Patrick, MD, PhD.
Dr. Heimlich’s longtime associate is now gone, but questions about this unusual chapter in medical history remain unanswered.
Patrick v. Cleveland Scene et al: appellate court affirms district court judgement, 12/21/09
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27 Dec 2009 at 10:22 am | #
Thrice-married, thrice-divorced by his wives, five surviving children. Wife #2 (Susan Soudrette) used to work at the Heimlich Institute. According to her LinkedIn page, she’s now at The Greater Cincinnati Foundation: http://bit.ly/6J6wx8
27 Dec 2009 at 10:45 am | #
Not speaking ill of the dead, but in the photo, why does Dr. Patrick have a muskrat on his head?
27 Dec 2009 at 04:08 pm | #
From “Playing Doctor”: http://tinyurl.com/ycw42sr
(The) decade sees Patrick crisscrossing Ohio, with emergency-room stops in Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati, as well as in podunks like Georgetown, Circleville, and Hillsborough. By the mid-1990s, he becomes even more nomadic, getting medical licenses in Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina. If that isn’t strange enough, Patrick lists a birthdate of 1947 on four of the licenses - though his actual birthdate is 1937.
...Patrick’s career is made all the more flammable due to the time that’s elapsed since his alleged Jewish residency. If it’s bogus, and if Jewish Hospital has nonetheless been verifying it all these years - even after suspicions were raised - it may be liable for all that Patrick has done in 28 years of emergency-room work.
“In the case of an emergency-room doctor, the hospital is vouching to the public at large that it is staffed by people who are adequately trained, and we as patients have to rely on that,” says Michael Djordjevic, a malpractice attorney in Akron. “What’s at stake here is potentially life and death.”
And that could present legal consequences for Jewish Hospital - the expensive kind.
It appears that Health Alliance, the corporate overseer of Jewish and five other Cincinnati hospitals, understands this problem. In September 2002, Gary Harris, general counsel for the Health Alliance, took the Patrick file. Today, Mike Bowen says that file is locked in Harris’s office, safe from the prying eyes of lawyers and reporters. Harris did not return phone calls.
27 Dec 2009 at 11:04 pm | #
Why is this listed as an “obiturary?” is this an obiturary? Isn’t that respectfully what is left for the family to do? He didn’t die on Christmas eve. Scratch your heads as much as you want.
28 Dec 2009 at 08:14 am | #
Why is this listed as an “obiturary?” is this an obiturary?
I don’t know what an “obiturary” is, but according to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/OBITUARY:
“A notice of a person’s death usually with a short biographical account.”
28 Dec 2009 at 09:46 am | #
http://bit.ly/5Ngtk2
Edward A. Patrick MD PhD FACEP, 2/06 resume, submitted as an exhibit with Dr. Patrick’s deposition in West v. Harley Davidson, Circuit Court of Mingo County WV, civil case 04-C-200
http://bit.ly/6iDE4t
Dr. Patrick’s deposition, 2/24/06
28 Dec 2009 at 02:21 pm | #
Edward A Patrick 10-07-1937 to 12-23-2009 RIP
28 Dec 2009 at 05:36 pm | #
http://is.gd/5EHC0
Edward A. Patrick MD PhD, May 1978 CV (from Purdue University Office of Public Records), 23 pages
28 Dec 2009 at 06:38 pm | #
From http://www.casewatch.org/civil/patrick/dismissal.shtml
A federal court judge has dismissed a libel suit brought by Edward Patrick, M.D. against the Cleveland Scene newspaper and Thomas Francis, a writer whose cover story, “Playing Doctor,” had accused Patrick of lying about his professional experience. Patrick is board-certified in emergency medicine, based on a one-year residency program followed by credit for practice. However, critics believe he did not complete residency training. The newspaper article also questioned the veracity of data from Patrick that were used to establish the Heimlich maneuver. as a method for treating choking. As noted below, the judge concluded that Patrick misrepresented the extent of his medical training and failed to present credible information to rebut other accusations made in the article. Patrick appealed, but in December 2009 the appeal was dismissed.
From 10/20/08 ruling by Federal District Court Judge Lesley Wells:
From the record it appears substantially true that Dr. Patrick’s assertion that he conducted research on the Heimlich Maneuver prior to his residency at Jewish Hospital was misleading. Equally left unrebutted are the article’s assertions both that Dr. Patrick inaccurately claimed his residency at Jewish Hospital was designed for emergency medicine or in emergency medicine, and that he claimed incorrect dates for his residency. The plaintiff did not rebut the article’s observation that Dr. Patrick shaved ten years from his age by using false birth dates on his medical licenses in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Alabama, as well as on his application to take his emergency medicine boards. Finally, left unrebutted are the article’s observations that Dr. Patrick misrepresented his medical training when he claimed to have held a full professorship at Indiana University Medical Center, and that he singularly began the emergency medicine department at St. Luke’s Hospital.
Further, Dr. Patrick has failed to establish the falsity of the article’s second imputation by clear and convincing evidence. The second imputation focused on Dr. Patrick’s participation in the residency program at Jewish Hospital and raised questions about the form of his participation and whether the residency was properly completed. That imputation was predicated on several sources: the lack of documentation at Jewish Hospital where Dr. Patrick’s file lacks actual rotations or evaluations; published reports on Dr. Patrick’s speciality as an electrical engineer and the computer research role he was to fulfill in Dr. Heimlich’s lab; evidence of Dr. Patrick’s competing outside activities at Purdue University and far-flung speaking engagements during his residency; and, interviews with hospital staff, including with Dr. (Gordon) Margolin, the then-Chief of Internal Medicine, who refused to sign Dr. Patrick’s residency certificates.
28 Dec 2009 at 10:03 pm | #
Letter to the Editor, Cleveland Scene, November 17, 2004:
http://tinyurl.com/y96poct
Gore in the E.R.
Concerning your story about the credibility of Dr. Patrick (“Playing Doctor,” October 27): In 1991, I was 16 years old, and I came to the emergency room in Hillsboro for a severe nosebleed. Dr. Patrick inserted a device up my nose called a balloon. It was inserted too far and created complications and severe pain. I had bleeding for the next 16 hours. The next day, my family doctor was disgusted that this had been done in such a manner.
My parents complained to the hospital, but did not pursue it any further. Until today, I did not realize that Dr. Patrick was not legally a doctor or that his credentials are questionable, but it makes perfect sense to me. His professional demeanor was ridiculous, and his skills and decisions were even worse. Even the E.R. nurses spoke of his work in the E.R. as horrible.
I appreciate the investigative reporting. It opened my eyes after all these years. Hopefully he will not be able to hurt anyone else after this.
Dirk Puckett, Paramedic
Hillsboro
31 Dec 2009 at 03:32 pm | #
You moron. Not only was he a doctor, he was a board certified doctor. MD., PhD. The man was a genius. Stuff happens in the ER but if this is all you need to be convinced of something, some mixed up dates and a bad experience at the ER, i feel bad for your ability to reason and go through life with any form of logic.
31 Dec 2009 at 06:50 pm | #
Everyone has a right to their own opinion unless yours is the only one that counts?
31 Dec 2009 at 06:59 pm | #
Patrick v. Cleveland Scene et al, Defendants Motion for Summary Judgment + exhibits, 2/4/08 (779 pages): http://bit.ly/77ie5p
Includes numerous documents re: Dr. Patrick’s training, medical licenses, work history, etc.
Judge’s Order Granting Defendants Motion, 10/20/08: http://www.casewatch.org/civil/patrick/dismissal.shtml
31 Dec 2009 at 09:11 pm | #
The man was a genius. Says who?
01 Jan 2010 at 07:39 am | #
Says all the lives he saved for nearly fifty years in E. Rooms. Says the awards he’s won, says his IQ. Says his encyclopedic knowledge of medicine. He was an inventor, author, professor, MD, PhD, board certified doctor who co-developed the Heimlich manuever among many other accomplishments that made the world better. People just love juicy dirt whether it’s true or not.
01 Jan 2010 at 08:04 am | #
Page 588 from http://bit.ly/77ie5p
Event Report - Quality Improvement/Peer Review by T. Vaughn RN, Scott Memorial Hospital, Scottsburg, IN, 9/20/05
I went into pts room with Dr. Patrick to staple a pts head. The laceration was bloody & blood in his hair also. Dr. Patrick numbed his head and stapled it without using gloves and when he left the room, he did not wash his hands & came back to the desk & filled out the pt’s d/c papers & when I went to fill out d/c teaching there was blood on the sheet. I then had went to another pts room to see if her cuts on her fingers had quit bleeding & Dr. Patrick came into the room & touched her bleeding cuts without gloves on & once again left the room & didn’t wash his hands & came back to the desk and started charting. This not only puts the patients at risk but also puts all of the staff at risk. I did not witness him washing his hands the entire day.
01 Jan 2010 at 08:10 am | #
Funky Wagnalls says: I don’t know what an “obiturary” is, but according to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/OBITUARY:
“A notice of a person’s death usually with a short biographical account.”
That’s cute. I get it. You’re being pedantic. You don’t know what an “obitruary” is because of my typo. I accidentally put the letter r before the u when clearly it just doesn’t belong there. And you’re in agreement with being pedantic because you made the comment publically. Well, thank you for the valuable information, not only on the correct spelling of the word but the definition of it.
01 Jan 2010 at 08:37 am | #
The “nose balloon” procedure you had done was innovative and it’s had recent studies approving it.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/52639.php
“Earlier this year a new surgical treatment for sinusitis was introduced to the American public. It involves a small, flexible, sinus balloon catheter that is placed into the nose to reach the sinuses. The sinus balloon catheter, similar in concept to technology found in cardiology, urology, and vascular surgery, is gradually inflated to gently restructure the previously blocked nasal passage, maintaining the integrity of the sinus lining and restoring normal sinus drainage and function. Some surgeons anecdotally report the new devices effectively relieve sinus ostia obstruction with less post-operative pain, scarring, and bleeding than typically seen with traditional instruments. A recently published investigation reports the safety and efficacy of the new devices in relieving sinus obstruction during endoscopic sinus surgery in a small group of ten patients.”
I can guarantee you, you wont find a doctor (including your own who was “disgusted” by the procedure) who hasn’t made a minor mistake, a major mistake or even killed a patient. You bled from your nose after going to the ER for a nose bleed. I hope you’ll some day be able to recover from this. And i’m really sorry you had severe pain when you were 16. But i’m more sorry that you didn’t realize Dr. Patrick wasn’t really a doctor based on your experience and an article. The liklihood of slipping past dozens and dozens of hospitals and becoming board certified is really unlikely if you’re not actually a doctor.
01 Jan 2010 at 08:42 am | #
The man was a genius. Says who?
Says his college degrees, the awards he’s won, the books he’s written that go over 90% of peoples’ heads, says his PhD in engineering, the inventions he’s made starting in his early 20s and says his IQ.
May he rest in peace and may all be shown the exact same courtesy offered when a loved one of yours dies.
01 Jan 2010 at 08:45 am | #
In an ideal world, the person who prevails in a lawsuit would be the one who’s in the right. But in the real world, nine times out of ten, the person who prevails is the person who is the better record-keeper.
01 Jan 2010 at 10:58 am | #
When did he die? Last week? This is the only obuuarty that can be found any where. That is very sad.
01 Jan 2010 at 11:44 am | #
From http://bit.ly/87Mxh7
September 19, 1985
Edward A. Patrick, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Cincinnati
Mail Location 30
898 Rhodes Hall
Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
Dear Dr. Patrick:
If you ever make a better mousetrap, the world will have trouble finding your door. I made five calls to the University of Cincinnati, trying to reach you. Although there were some people who knew that you existed, no one seemed to know where. Hence this letter.
All I wanted to do was to inform you that I had taken some action in reference to the Heimlich maneuver versus backslapping. I issued a press release on the matter several weeks ago (a copy of which was mailed to you). There will be a discussion of the matter in my monthly column which appears in weekly newspapers throughout the country. Also, the matter will be discussed in an editorial in the next issue of Public Health Reports.
I called Henry’s Office, found he was in New York, but I left a message.
Thank you for your letter. It was very much appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
C. Everett Koop, M.D
Surgeon General
01 Jan 2010 at 07:07 pm | #
Says all the lives he saved for nearly fifty years in E. Rooms. The records show he was only working as a doctor for 25 years.
02 Jan 2010 at 06:52 am | #
The liklihood (sic) of slipping past dozens and dozens of hospitals and becoming board certified is really unlikely if you’re not actually a doctor.
Unlikely indeed. That’s what makes it an amazing story.
BTW, the issue has never been whether Ed was a doctor. That is, in 1974 Indiana University School of Medicine saw fit to award him an MD. (He was a fulltime EE prof at Purdue at the time, but that’s another story).
What happened after that - all the “slipping past” stuff - is where it gets really interesting.
02 Jan 2010 at 12:53 pm | #
Dr. Patrick came into the room & touched her bleeding cuts without gloves on & once again left the room & didn’t wash his hands & came back to the desk and started charting. This not only puts the patients at risk but also puts all of the staff at risk. I did not witness him washing his hands the entire day - T. Vaughn RN.
Another moron!!! Dr. Genius was too busy saving lives to waste time washing his hands!!!
02 Jan 2010 at 04:01 pm | #
That is with out a doubt the most ignorant thing I have heard anyone say ” he was too busy saving lives to waste time washing his hands!!! ” It takes a minute to wash your hands. For his safety and the safety of his patients and people around him.
02 Jan 2010 at 08:50 pm | #
Moron!!! His hands were imbued with extraordinary healing powers!!! Washing was unnecessary!!! Same goes for him not always zipping up!!!
02 Jan 2010 at 09:10 pm | #
So you knew him up close and personal.
03 Jan 2010 at 10:36 am | #
Wow: So you knew him up close and personal.
According to Dr. Patrick, so did the FBI: http://bit.ly/62E4BW