There is one final aspect to the fairy tale I've been telling you for the last two days that I need to relate before I can tie Sen. Norm Coleman into this mess: The Heimlich Maneuver. The Heimlich Maneuver is as well-known as Kleenex. Everybody knows its the thing you do when somebody's choking. The only problem with the Heimlich is that the Red Cross no longer considers it the gold standard, but SALF still pushes it.
Below the fold I'll provide a recap and details.
-- cross-posted from mnblue.com, home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter --
Just to recap, once upon a time a woman founded a non-profit that garnered millions and millions in grants and contracts. But the woman didn't have a nursing degree as she claimed nor had she ever registered as an RN. Also, her daughter didn't bleed out in a hit-and-run and die because first responders didn't perform first aid correctly as she claimed, she died driving drunk. Furthermore, her organization, the Save a Life Foundation (SALF), cannot account for how many kids they've actually trained (people in the know assert SALF's numbers are too high). Finally, they have been accused of plagiarizing an EMT manual for their own manual.
Yesterday, I detailed how despite all of these questions, SALF remains in good standing with Homeland Security and FEMA.
Now onto SALF and the problem with their pushing the Heimlich Maneuver as the primary way to stop clear someone's airway:
To fellow reformers across the nation, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz touted it as one of his "best practices": teaching young children lifesaving techniques such as CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. It seemed like a great idea. There are thousands of latchkey kids in poor neighborhoods, and quite a few care for younger brothers and sisters. Since 2005, an estimated 9,330 students in several local elementary schools have sat through two-hour courses paid for and designed by the Save A Life Foundation (SALF), a group that Diaz, in his position as a leader — now president — of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has praised for bringing first aid to schools.
Heimlich maneuver, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, teaching faulty first-aid in public schools
Among other things, the children learned they could use the Heimlich maneuver, the well-known abdominal thrust used to save a person from choking, on their baby brothers and sisters, according to a flyer sent home to parents. This was hardly surprising, since its creator, Dr. Henry Heimlich, sat on the foundation's board.
There are a couple of problems, though. Most important, the Red Cross and other emergency organizations say the Heimlich maneuver should never be performed on infants, and it can kill drowning victims. Then there are the allegations of deceit, mismanagement, and bad science that have been leveled against the foundation for the past two years.
(Miami New Times)
So on top of all of the other reasons for questioning why our government gives this organization, they have problems with best medical practices.
The Red Cross recommends Heimlich's abdominal thrust only if back slaps fail. That is the opposite of what the Save-A-Life Foundation continues to teach to thousands of school children in Chicago and several other states.
"We have trained this year alone, in the Chicago Public Schools alone, 67,000 children," said Carol Spizzirri, Save-A-Life Foundation.
Spizzirri is the founder of Save-A-Life. She claims to have a nursing degree and be a registered nurse, but state officials say their records show that neither is true. When the I-Team challenged her qualifications, Spizzirri walked out on our interview and has since declined numerous offers to supply evidence of her medical training and licensing.
A Spizzirri spokesman did e-mail a statement fully supporting the Heimlich method, which is hardly surprising, because Spizzirri enlisted Dr. Henry Heimlich as the medical advisor of Save-A-Life.
Heimlich has rejected the Red Cross' downgrading of his maneuver for choking and continues urging that it be used for other things as well, including drowning.
"The Heimlich maneuver can drive the water out. The Heimlich maneuver will stop an asthma attack," said Heimlich.
Heimlich also urges the maneuver be used on cystic fibrosis victims, all claims that have stunned the medical community and major medical organizations, which warn that the use of the Heimlich maneuver in those situations could be fatal.
The American Lung Association asked Chicago respiratory expert Dr. John Shannon to speak with us.
"It shouldn't be used at all in asthma in cystic fibrosis or any chronic inflation disorder in the lung passages," said Dr. John Shannon, Stroger Cook County Hospital ."There is a good possibility of making a person with asthma substantially worse."
(ABC7's I-TEAM report "The Maneuver")
Tomorrow, in part four of this fairy tale trilogy of Republican oversight, I'll explain Norm's role in all of this.
-- cross-posted from mnblue.com, home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter --