From: The Dean of Cincinnati <dean@cincinnatibeacon.com> Subject: Mr.

Atherton: Heimlich story fact-checking Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:48:10 -0400 To: jatherton@fox19.com Jack Atherton, News Anchor WXIX, Fox19 Dear Mr. Atherton: During the past week I copied you on a series of e-mails I exchanged with Dr. Henry Heimlich's press agent Robert Kraft (copied below my signature) in which I requested that he verify what appear to be dubious claims reported in your February 27 "Success Stories" interview with Dr. Heimlich: http://tinyurl.com/2klfes I also copied Dr. Heimlich. I haven't received responses to my questions from Mr. Kraft or Dr. Heimlich so I'm bringing the matter to your attention. The Cincinnati Beacon has published articles which have questioned the veracity of other dubious claims made by Dr. Heimlich. Some are benign, such as the claim that he used the Heimlich maneuver to rescue a choking victim at the Cincinnati Bankers Club in 2001: http://tinyurl.com/2wqmyh Other claims he's made are considerably more serious, such as publishing journal articles which include dubious medical case reports, as reported recently in the Dayton Daily News by medical reporter Kevin Lamb: http://research.batcave.net/DDN_9-1-06.pdf In the past I and other reporters have attempted to verify a variety of such claims with Mr. Kraft, Dr. Heimlich, and Deaconess Associations, which owns the Heimlich Institute. Medical professionals including Dr. Robert Baratz, president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, and Dr. Peter Wernicki, medical advisor to the US Lifesaving Association, have also tried to obtain answers from Dr. Heimlich, Mr. Kraft, and Deaconess. Such inquiries are either ignored or the responses fail to provide substantive answers, i.e. http://research.50webs.com/NCAHF-HI_3-6-05.pdf and http://www.usla.org/PublicInfo/lfg_library.asp Regarding your Heimlich report, since I can't get answers from Mr. Kraft or Dr. Heimlich, this is to request that you ask them to verify the information you reported. Let me point out that most of the information concerns the United States Army in wartime, a subject most Americans take to heart. Presumably you and Fox News consider fabricating stories about the military to be a serious matter. From your broadcast: Dr. Heimlich: "No one had ever been saved on the battlefield when they were shot in the chest." 1. With all due respect, it's unlikely that no soldier has ever been saved on any battlefield from a gunshot chest wound before the Heimlich valve was used in Vietnam. Did Dr. Heimlich misspeak? If not, does he have any evidence to support his claim? Dr. Heimlich: "In Vietnam, every soldier carried a Heimlich chest drain valve attached to a sterile tube in an envelope his pocket. If you were shot in the chest, you didn't need a doctor or nurse. Your buddy could just take this apparatus put the chest tube into the chest through the bullet hole..." 2. If this is true, it means that hundreds of thousands of US soldiers were not only equipped with Heimlich valves, but that they had received medical training in order to learn how to perform the procedure described by Dr. Heimlich. I've been unable to verify either claim. Does Dr. Heimlich have any supporting evidence to verify that every US soldier carried the Heimlich valve and that these soldiers received training in how to use it? Mr. Atherton: "Now about 120,000 are used every year by military and civilian doctors even though as with the Heimlich maneuver, the valve faced fierce opposition." 3. What's the source of that 120,000 valves per year figure? Also, as described in the story, the valve was widely used in Vietnam immediately after its introduction. This appears to contradict the claim that the device faced "fierce opposition." That is, how could the device simultaneously be widely used yet "fiercely opposed"? Therefore, can you provide any documentation to support your claim that the valve was "fiercely opposed" or was your statement inaccurate? 4. Who first brought this story to your attention? At any point in the development of the story, was Mr. Kraft or his public relations agency involved? 5. In the event that you are unable to verify the statements you reported, does WXIX intend to broadcast a correction? Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to your reply. Sincerely, Jason A. Haap MA Cincinnati Beacon cc: Robert S. Baratz MD PhD/National Council Against Health Fraud Peter Wernicki MD, B. Chris Brewster/US Lifesaving Association Kevin Lamb/Dayton Daily News Steve Ackerman, John Long/WXIX