Subject: corrections requests & a request to forward information to a Slate editor

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

Date: 6/2/2016 2:36 PM
To: corrections@slate.com
To whom it may concern:
1) I'm requesting a published correction for this factual error in the headline and lead of Slate
reporter Ben Mathis-Lilley's May 27, 2016 story: http://tinyurl.com/ze4ntpz

Via my blog yesterday, I reported about how, shortly after I filed a corrections request on the
afternoon of May 27, the Cincinnati Enquirer published a significant re-write of their original story
-- my item includes a copy of the now-disappeared original version: http://www.the-sidebar.com
/2016/06/hoist-by-his-own-petard-just-in-time.html
Please see below my signature for the basis of the Enquirer's re-write, four published reports from
2001-2006 in which my father told reporters (BBC, Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker, and
Private Clubs newsletter) that he had performed the Heimlich maneuver on a choking victim at the
restaurant in Cincinnati's Banker's Club in 2001.

FYI, the Deupree House story with my father's false claim was widely-reported and I'm just starting
to send out requests for published corrections. In an attempt to make lemonade out of that lemon of
a task (smile), 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 from print
and broadcast media outlets. Some have done a responsible job, i.e., informing readers that a story
has been corrected, specifically what information has been corrected and why, etc. Others have
simply "disappeared" errors a la Winston Smith's job in Orwell's 1984. Needless to say, I hope Slate
takes the high road.
2) Via Mr. Mathis-Lilley's item:
For more on those subjects, read this crazy 2007 New Republic story by Jason Zengerle,
which investigates an anonymous and seemingly unhinged individual's attempt, in the
early 2000s, to publicly discredit Heimlich's work. And make sure you keep reading until
Zengerle reveals the identity of the person making the attacks, because it is quite a twist!
As the once-anonymous individual -- I began speaking out under my own name in his 2004
Cleveland newsweekly cover story http://tinyurl.com/q7pzaaq (three years before Zenger's story
was published, by the way) -- I take exception with the characterization that any of my actions
remotely approached "seemingly unhinged." On the contrary, my efforts resulted in a widely report
investigation conducted by UCLA in early 2003 (NY Times, LA Times, Reuters, Cincinnati Enquirer,
etc) and scores of other media exposes: http://medfraud.info/Selected-media-reports.html
I also disagree that Zengerle's article creates the impression that my actions were "seemingly
unhinged." Therefore, in my opinion Mr. Mathis-Lilley's choice of words is false, malicious, and may
harm my reputation. With that in mind, I'm respectfully requesting that a Slate editor review and
consider substituting words that more accurately reflect the facts.
3) Zengerle's New Republic article was originally commissioned and then spiked by The New
Yorker, almost certainly because his editor Amy Davidson became aware that Zengerle was
reporting information he knew to be false, and that he lied to me and my wife in order to gain access
to my files. It's a lively and newsworthy media backstory that has yet to be reported except for my
website: http://medfraud.info/Zengerle-Farel.html
I'm interested in moving that story forward, so would you please forward my web page to an
appropriate editor on the media and/or medical beats for consideration?
Also please feel free to forward this e-mail to Mr. Mathis-Lilley. If he's interested in corresponding,
I'd welcome hearing from him.
Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
ph: (208)474-7283
website: http://medfraud.info
blog: http://the-sidebar.com

e-mail: peter.heimlich@gmail.com
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.