The 96-year-old Cincinnati surgeon credited with developing the Heimlich manoeuvre recently used the emergency technique for the first time himself to save a woman choking on food at his retirement centre.
Dr Henry Heimlich told The Cincinnati Enquirer in an interview published on Thursday he had demonstrated the well-known manoeuvre many times over the years but had never before used it on a person who was choking.
An employee at the Deupree House in Cincinnati where Heimlich lives says the retired chest surgeon was in the room when an 87-year-old woman began choking.
The employee says Heimlich dislodged a piece of hamburger from the woman's airway and she quickly recovered.
Heimlich says it made him appreciate how wonderful it has been "to be able to save all those lives."
