My two-month correspondence with NBC News trying to get reporter Elizabeth Chuck to correct factual errors in her 5/27/16 story about my father allegedly saving a choking victim at his assisted living home

Subject: Re: blogger inquiry -- 2nd request, please advise
From: "Peter M. Heimlich" <peter.heimlich@gmail.com>

Date: 7/25/2016 8:25 PM
To: erika.masonhall@nbcuni.com
Hi again Ms. Masonhall,
I got your confirmation of receipt to my previous e-mail, no further communication. I'd welcome a quick note to
let me know the status of my inquiry.
FYI, today I posted Part II of my series: http://www.the-sidebar.com/2016/07/i-helped-re-write-ny-stateresolution.html
Thanks for your continued attention and I look forward to your reply.
Cheers, Peter
On 7/21/2016 2:59 PM, Peter M. Heimlich wrote to erika.masonhall@nbcuni.com
Dear Ms. Masonhall,
I'd appreciate your answer to a quick question for an item I'm reporting on my blog.
Allow me bring you up to speed with a quick summary that shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to
review. (For details, please see the e-mail trail below my signature.)
On May 27, 2016 NBCnews.com published At 96, Dr. Heimlich Uses His Own Technique for First Time to Save
Someone by reporter Elizabeth Chuck. Her story had factual errors in the headline and the lead, both based on a
lie that originated from my father, Henry J. Heimlich MD.
That day, in a cordial e-mail exchange, I verified some information with Ms. Chuck, then a few days later in a
June 1 e-mail, I sent her a thoroughly-documented corrections request. I also informed her that I planned to blog
about the situation because it's an interesting journalism story about how quickly a lie can get circulated in the
Internet age.
I received Ms. Chuck's confirmations of receipt but no reply, so I followed up with her via e-mail on June 10. She
replied that she'd like to arrange a phone call with me, so I asked what she wished to discuss. She replied:
Im trying to figure out whether its worth doing an entire separate story on your father, not
just an amendment to the original story, and Id love to hear from you more about whether
he has a history of making claims that have later been disproven or are unproven.
That was fine with me and we had a productive half-hour chat on the afternoon of Saturday, June 11 in which I
provided Ms. Chuck with multiple published examples of my father's history of lying to reporters and authoring
articles that includes false information.
I didn't hear back from Ms. Chuck and in the interim there had been some movement on the story, so on July 2 I
sent her an updated version of my corrections request (that included reports in Slate and McKnight's which
questioned whether the story Ms. Chuck reported was just a publicity stunt) and I requested the status of the
situation. I received her confirmation of receipt, but no reply.
By then it seemed apparent that Ms. Chuck did not intend to address the matter, so in a July 15 e-mail, I asked
her to direct me to an NBC editor with whom I could discuss the situation. I received her confirmation of receipt,
but no reply, so I sent her a July 18 follow-up. Again, I received her confirmation of receipt but no reply.
Here's my question. Is Ms. Chuck's processing of my corrections request in compliance with NBC standards?
Please feel free to elaborate and I'll publish your response unedited and without comment.
Thanks for your time/consideration and I look forward to your reply. If you can get back to me by Monday, July
25, that would be great. Questions? Just ask.
FYI, I decided to report a series about news outlets that published my father's lie and how they handled my
corrections requests. Here's part one: http://tinyurl.com/joga3ay
Cheers, Peter
Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283
website: http://medfraud.info
blog: http://the-sidebar.com
e-mail: peter.heimlich@gmail.com
On 7/18/2016 4:34 PM, Peter M. Heimlich wrote to Elizabeth.Chuck@NBCUNI.COM

On 7/15/2016 9:27 AM, Peter M. Heimlich wrote to Elizabeth.Chuck@NBCUNI.COM
Elizabeth,
I haven't received a reply from you and the errors are uncorrected in your May 27th story, so would you
please direct me to the responsible NBC editor with whom I can discuss my concerns?
-- Peter
Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283
Hi Elizabeth,
What's the status of my June 1, 2016 corrections request, please? I'd like to get this off my desk before next
weekend.
FYI, since we spoke, I've gotten some other published corrections and have obtained other related facts that NBC
might find helpful so I've updated my original request to include that information.
Via your May 27, 2016 article, the red arrows point to the factual errors: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/usnews/96-dr-henry-heimlich-uses-his-own-technique-first-time-n581666
As I explained to you last month, the errors were not your fault.
Here's what happened.
On the evening of May 26, 2016, the Cincinnati Enquirer published At 96, Dr. Heimlich finally uses his lifesaving technique by staff reporter Kevin Grasha. The headline and the body of that story were based on a lie my
father told the paper -- that an alleged choking rescue on May 23, 2016 in which he supposedly saved the life of
an 87-year-old woman at a Cincinnati retirement community was the first time he had claimed to have saved the
life of a choking victim using his namesake maneuver.
The next afternoon I sent a corrections request to the Enquirer based on the following four articles published
from 2001-2006.
Via Private Clubs Newsletter, June/August 2001 by reporter Louis Marroquin (via The Wayback Machine):
http://tinyurl.com/hdzwajm
TO THE RESCUE
The story sounds like it could be an urban legend, but it actually happened in the dining room of the
Bankers Club in Cincinnati. During a busy lunchtime, a guest of the club began choking as he sat eating
at a table. A member sitting at another table promptly rushed to the aid of the victim, wrapped his arms
around the mans waist, and pressed his fist upward into his abdomen, expelling the trapped object from
the clogged airway. The quick-thinking member was none other than Dr. Henry Heimlich, who
surprisingly had never before performed his namesake Heimlich maneuver in an emergency situation.
But the good doctor says performing the maneuver in this scenario was as easy as that. Ive practiced
enough, I guess, in my life"...At 81 years old, Dr. Heimlich stays active playing tennis, works daily at the
Heimlich Institute, and speaks at medical meetings to promote ongoing research being done at the
Institute. And if the lunchtime menu includes saving a life, he will always make room for that too.
Louis Marroquin
Via Heimlich: Still saving lives at 83 by Jane Elliott, BBC News, March 9, 2003:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2825971.stm
But despite being the inventor of one of the most significant medical techniques, Dr Heimlich told BBC
News Online that he has only been called upon once to carry it out himself - and that was just three years
ago.
"I was in this club restaurant eating when I heard someone calling Dr Heimlich. I turned around and saw
a man choking so I did the Heimlich Manoeuvre and got it out and then went on and had my lunch."
Via Yes, There Really is a Dr. Heimlich And He's Pushing More Uses for his Famous Maneuver by Jim Ritter,
Chicago Sun-Times, October 7, 2001: http://tinyurl.com/hh8akwb
Twenty-six years after inventing the Heimlich maneuver, Dr. Henry Heimlich finally had an opportunity
to try it himself.
Heimlich was having lunch last year when he was urgently called to the side of a man choking on his
food. Heimlich wrapped his arms around the man and made a fist against his upper abdomen. He thrust
upward and out popped the food. Another life saved.
"I just did it and went back to eating," Heimlich said.
Heimlich said anyone could have done it.
Via Choke Artist by Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, May 8, 2006:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/05/08/choke-artist
Dr. Heimlich himself said the other day that he has performed the move only once, in Cincinnati.
That evening (May 27, 2016) the Enquirer published a major re-write of the article posted at the same URL as the
original article but now titled, At 96, Heimlich performs his own maneuver and co-bylined by Mr. Grasha and
reporter Bowdeya Tweh: http://tinyurl.com/jgqucq2
Here's the key information from the Enquirer's re-write:
Monday might not have been the first time Dr. Henry Heimlich performed his namesake medical
procedure on a live choking victim.
...Heimlich told The Enquirer Thursday his encounter with Patty Ris at the Deupree House senior living
facility, where they both live, was the first time he ever performed it on a person needing immediate aid.
However, several published reports in the early 2000s from news outlets ranging from the BBC to the
Chicago Sun-Times show interviews with Heimlich describing himself using the maneuver. In one
interview, he said he helped a man at the former private dining club, the Banker's Club, in Downtown
Cincinnati in 2001.
...Cincinnati.com initially published a story late Thursday about the incident, quoting Heimlich as saying
this was the first time he'd ever performed his own maneuver on someone. But then one of his sons,
Peter Heimlich, reached out to media organizations pointing out the existence of articles roughly 15 years
ago.
Another son, local attorney Phil Heimlich, said he doesn't recall those media reports.
"All I can say is none of us had a recollection of it," Phil Heimlich said. "If dad did it, I wouldve heard
about it."
It isn't the first time Heimlich's statements have been challenged. In 2003, The Enquirer reported that
Romanian surgeon Dr. Dan Gavriliu disputed statements from the Cincinnati doctor that he developed
an operation that uses a section of the stomach to bypass the esophagus. The Romanian doctor claimed
Heimlich took credit for a procedure he developed years earlier.
Heres a copy of the now-disappeared original Enquirer article: http://tinyurl.com/gmqoymk
Here's how other news outlets have addressed the issue.
On May 27, 2016, Slate published the incorrect information. That afternoon I e-mailed Slate a similar corrections
request to the one I sent to the Enquirer. The next day Slate published this revised version, Heimlich Inventor
Uses His Maneuver on Actual Choking Victim for First Time (Update: Maybe Not): http://tinyurl.com/ze4ntpz
And via the May 28 New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/us/dr-heimlich-uses-his-ownmaneuver-on-choking-victim.html?_r=0
Is this the first time Dr. Heimlich has ever used the maneuver to save a life?
Yes, this is, he said Friday. I originally did my research studies that led to my developing it, which was
in 1974, and I never considered that I would be doing it myself.
The record is murky in that regard. A BBC article in 2003 quoted the doctor, then 83, describing a
similar encounter where he tried the maneuver on a fellow diner, a man, although the story lacked
details such as a precise date, location and name. A New Yorker article in 2006 made reference to a
similar incident, also without details. But a son, Phil Heimlich, said his father had never mentioned any
previous incidents to him. The doctor himself did not return a follow-up call.
Further, Slate http://tinyurl.com/zdgjb2k and McKnight's http://tinyurl.com/zrtxpyv have published stories
questioning whether the recent incident at the retirement home was a publicity stunt as a set-up for "National
Heimlich Maneuver Day," which is June 1. I've blogged a handful of related stories and my most recent item
raises more questions, including whether my 96-year-old father had a pre-existing personal relationship with the
purported 87-year-old choking victim, Patty Ris: http://tinyurl.com/h5pemzu You could certainly ask Ms. Ris
and my father to respond to the Slate and McKnight's stories, and my item. And I'd certainly welcome the
opportunity to share my opinions.
Finally, Cincinnati CityBeat is the Queen City's longtime newsweekly. Via a June 8 column by the paper's media
critic, veteran reporter Ben Kaufman: http://tinyurl.com/zgf5hhb
A recent Cincinnati Enquirer story went global, aided and abetted by the Associated Press. It was perfect
click bait. The story said that at 96, Cincinnatian Henry Heimlich used his Maneuver for the first time to
save a life. One of his sons, Peter a longtime critic of his fathers medical claims pounced: how could
it be a first when the retired surgeon previously claimed the same thing about an incident in 2001?
That would make the current story wrong. Unless the elder Heimlich invented that earlier incident at
Cincinnatis Bankers Club. If he lied previously, then saving Patty Ris at Cincinnatis Deupree House
senior residence really was Heimlichs first use of the Maneuver to save a life and the Enquirer story
was correct.
The ensuing fuss says more about journalism than the retired surgeons lifelong lust for fame. Follow me,
please.
Late last month, Henry Heimlich used abdominal thrusts to dislodge food caught in dinner partner Patty
Ris windpipe. A few days later, The Enquirer reported the incident and Heimlichs claim that this was
the first time hed used it. It was all over the internet within hours. After Peter Heimlich alerted The
Enquirer and others to a similar claim years ago, the paper backed away from the novelty. It assigned a
second reporter to redo the story, adding and explaining doubts about the first in the longest crawlback I can remember.
That suggests the first reporter didnt check clips or that there was no Enquirer story about the 2001
Bankers Club incident, which adds to the weirdness of this entire episode. Whatever the facts, one first
is sufficient, and its the uncertainty that becomes the story.
Peter Heimlich told me that in addition to The Enquirer and AP, these are some of the news outlets I
filed corrections requests with last week: CNN, NBC News, The New York Daily News, and WCPO-TV. At
this writing, none have corrected the errors.
WCPO-TV (Cincinnati's ABC affiliate) is now off that list. After I requested a correction, last week WCPO
published this update, Heimlich's first time using maneuver? Maybe not: http://tinyurl.com/z84zw7s
That's the story so far, but I've gotten a nibble from another news outlet interested in the media backstory, so
there may be more to come.
Big thanks for your continued attention and I'd welcome a quick note with your thoughts.
Cheers and wishing you a very happy Independence Day -- Peter
Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283
On 6/11/2016 9:28 AM, Chuck, Elizabeth (NBCUniversal) wrote:

Sure. Im trying to figure out whether its worth doing an entire separate story on your father, not just an
amendment to the original story, and Id love to hear from you more about whether he has a history of
making claims that have later been disproven or are unproven.
Based on your blog, it seems the answer to that is yes.
Elizabeth Chuck | 212.413.6730
From: Peter M. Heimlich [mailto:peter.heimlich@gmail.com]

Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2016 9:25 AM
To: Chuck, Elizabeth (NBCUniversal) <Elizabeth.Chuck@NBCUNI.COM>
Subject: Re: blogger inquiry
Sounds good, Elizabeth. Can you give me some indication what you want to discuss? Just the corrections request
or something more?

5 p.m. will work just fine. I will only have a half hour to talk, but if we need to continue the conversation,
we can do so at another point.

Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2016 9:21 AM
No worries, Elizabeth. So we both have our afternoons, how about later in the day, say 5pm?
Peter, something has come up this morning at 11 a.m. a presser on an unrelated matter that I need to
cover.
Are you available to speak sometime this afternoon, 2:30 p.m. or later?
Sounds good. Cheers, Peter
On 6/10/2016 1:49 PM, Chuck, Elizabeth (NBCUniversal) wrote:
Thank you, Peter. I believe 11 a.m. tomorrow works. Ill give you a ring then.

Sent: Friday, June 10, 2016 1:48 PM
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for the follow-up, and please call me Peter -- I'm an informal guy.
I'd be more than happy to chat with you. This afternoon is better and I'm free from 2:15 until 5:30, so please feel
free to ring me if you've got a window. If that's a no go, how does 11am tomorrow (Saturday) work for you?
(We're in the same time zone.) If that's a miss, please suggest a couple alternatives and I'll confirm pronto.
FYI, my private direct number is [REDACTED]
Cheers, Peter
Mr. Heimlich: I havent forgotten about you.
Would you be willing to speak on the phone? Are you free tomorrow at any point?
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2016 1:27 PM
Elizabeth,
What's the status of my June 1, 2016 corrections request, please?
FYI, retired veteran reporter Ben Kaufman turned journalism professor keeps his hand in by writing a media
column for Cincinnati CityBeat, the Queen City's longtime newsweekly. In his June 8 column, he wrote up the
problematic Deupree House story and quoted me: http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-35411hoopla_over_health.html
Peter Heimlich told me that in addition to The Enquirer and AP, these are some of the news outlets I filed
corrections requests with last week: CNN, NBC News, The New York Daily News, and WCPO-TV. At this writing,
none have corrected the errors.
Thanks for your continued attention and I look forward to your reply.
Cheers, Peter
Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283
Last Friday Slate published a story with the same factual error. Yesterday I sent Slate a corrections
request and today they published an update of the original story along with an additional report (page
down): http://tinyurl.com/zdgjb2k
Includes:
Both the ostensible choking victim in the recent retirement-home incident (Patty Ris) and
another witness vouched that Heimlich had performed the dislodging procedure, although Ris'
testimony was made public through a public relations firm rather than a direct
interview with a reporter. Whatever actually happened at the retirement home, it appears
that the actual final step in the Heimlich maneuver might be boondoggling the press.
Via this clip, apparently my father and Ms. Ris are personally involved:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ2UpMGY2zA
PMH
On 6/1/2016 1:14 PM, Peter M. Heimlich wrote Elizabeth.Chuck@NBCUNI.COM
Hi Elizabeth,
Good to hear from you again -- and would that every reporter was as diligent! I was planning on following up
with you this afternoon, but since you wrote me first, here you go.
This is a request for a published correction for these factual errors in your story:
Via my blog today, I did a pretty thorough rundown of the situation about how, after I filed a May 27, 2016
corrections request, the Cincinnati Enquirer published a major re-write of their original May 26 story:
http://www.the-sidebar.com/2016/06/hoist-by-his-own-petard-just-in-time.html
Please see below my signature for the crux of the factual error, four published reports from 2001-2006 in which
my father told reporters he had performed the Heimlich maneuver on a choking victim at the restaurant in
Cincinnati's Banker's Club in 2001.
Would you please discuss this with your editor and/or producer and let me know the results?
FYI, the bogus version of the story was widely-reported, so I'm just starting to send out my requests for
published corrections. In an attempt to make lemonade out of that lemon of a task, I thought I'd use it as an
opportunity to blog the results of my requests from a journalism perspective. That is, in the past I've gotten a
number of published corrections. Some news outlets have done a responsible job according to ethical journalism
standards, i.e., informing readers that a story has been corrected, specifically what information has been
corrected and why, etc. Other news outlets have simply "disappeared" errors a la Winston Smith's job in Orwell's
1984.
Along those lines, your colleague Nicole Enberg was a great help with errors I turned up in a couple of NBC
reports last year, so I'm copying Nicole in case you'd like to reach out to her.
Thanks again for your interest and attention, and I look forward to your reply. Questions? Need more
information? Just ask.
Cheers, Peter
Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283
Via Private Clubs Newsletter June/August 2001 (via The Wayback Machine):
TO THE RESCUE
The story sounds like it could be an urban legend, but it actually happened in the dining room of the
Bankers Club in Cincinnati. During a busy lunchtime, a guest of the club began choking as he sat eating
at a table. A member sitting at another table promptly rushed to the aid of the victim, wrapped his arms
around the mans waist, and pressed his fist upward into his abdomen, expelling the trapped object from
the clogged airway. The quick-thinking member was none other than Dr. Henry Heimlich, who
surprisingly had never before performed his namesake Heimlich maneuver in an emergency situation.
But the good doctor says performing the maneuver in this scenario was as easy as that. Ive practiced
enough, I guess, in my life"...At 81 years old, Dr. Heimlich stays active playing tennis, works daily at the
Heimlich Institute, and speaks at medical meetings to promote ongoing research being done at the
Institute. And if the lunchtime menu includes saving a life, he will always make room for that too.
Louis Marroquin
Via Heimlich: Still saving lives at 83 by Jane Elliott, BBC News, March 9, 2003:
But despite being the inventor of one of the most significant medical techniques, Dr Heimlich told BBC
News Online that he has only been called upon once to carry it out himself - and that was just three years
ago.
"I was in this club restaurant eating when I heard someone calling Dr Heimlich. I turned around and saw
a man choking so I did the Heimlich Manoeuvre and got it out and then went on and had my lunch."
Via Yes, There Really is a Dr. Heimlich And He's Pushing More Uses for his Famous Maneuver by Jim Ritter,
Chicago Sun-Times, October 7, 2001:
Twenty-six years after inventing the Heimlich maneuver, Dr. Henry Heimlich finally had an opportunity
to try it himself.
Heimlich was having lunch last year when he was urgently called to the side of a man choking on his
food. Heimlich wrapped his arms around the man and made a fist against his upper abdomen. He thrust
upward and out popped the food. Another life saved.
"I just did it and went back to eating," Heimlich said.

Heimlich said anyone could have done it.
Via Choke Artist by Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, May 8, 2006:
Dr. Heimlich himself said the other day that he has performed the move only once, in Cincinnati.
I await your reply.
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 11:45 AM
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for the fast reply.
>May I ask why youre inquiring?
Back to you tomorrow with an answer.
Cheers, Peter
Hi there,
I spoke with both Ms. Ris herself and with Bryan Reynolds of Episcopal Retirement Services, and both
said Ms. Ris and Dr. Heimlich hadnt met before.
May I ask why youre inquiring?
Elizabeth
From: Peter M. Heimlich <peter.heimlich@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 11:41 AM
Subject: blogger inquiry
Dear Ms. Chuck,
Re: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/96-dr-henry-heimlich-uses-his-own-technique-first-timen581666
(Ris), a former third-grade teacher who just moved to (the Deupree House) in March, hadn't met
Heimlich before that night.
What's your source for the information in red bold, please?
Cheers and I look forward to your reply -- Peter
Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283

My two-month correspondence with NBC News trying to get reporter Elizabeth Chuck to correct factual errors in her 5/27/16 story about my father allegedly saving a choking victim at his assisted living home

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My two-month correspondence with NBC News trying to get reporter Elizabeth Chuck to correct factual errors in her 5/27/16 story about my father allegedly saving a choking victim at his assisted living home

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Subject: Re: blogger inquiry -- 2nd request, please advise

From: "Peter M. Heimlich" <peter.heimlich@gmail.com>

On 7/18/2016 4:34 PM, Peter M. Heimlich wrote to Elizabeth.Chuck@NBCUNI.COM

On 6/11/2016 9:28 AM, Chuck, Elizabeth (NBCUniversal) wrote:

From: Peter M. Heimlich [mailto:peter.heimlich@gmail.com]

On 6/11/2016 9:22 AM, Chuck, Elizabeth (NBCUniversal) wrote:

From: Peter M. Heimlich [mailto:peter.heimlich@gmail.com]

From: Peter M. Heimlich [mailto:peter.heimlich@gmail.com]

"I just did it and went back to eating," Heimlich said.

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