Heimlich Manoeuvre Development sketch - Mercorabilia

Another new sketch today and this one imagines the thought, research and experimentation that must have gone into the development of the now famous Hiemlich manoeuvre... maybe

Reporter: And here at the Gesundheit Institute the doctor and his associates are working hard to develop the latest in life-saving techniques. Doctor Hiemlich – can you tell us what it is you’re working on at the moment?
Dr Hiemlich: Ah, well, I’m very glad you asked me that. You see – one of the most common/tragic incidents we find in today’s modern times is that people are always rushing about and this can cause problems when it comes to meal times. They’re in a hurry to get to their next task and perhaps don’t stop and chew things over as they should and consequently they find themselves suffering from Chronic Obstructive Foreign Item Nullifying Gullet or in layman’s terms ‘choking to death’.
Reporter: I see – so what have you done to establish a cure?
Dr Hiemlich: Well, we felt the obvious answer was to find a way to get the obstruction out of the person. So the first thing we tried was to try to reach in to try and get hold of the obstruction and retrieve it that way.
Reporter: And did that work?
Dr Hiemlich: No. No, unfortunately they grabbed hold of the wrong thing and, um, it all got a bit messy.
Reporter: I see.
Dr Hiemlich: So after that we decided to try a non-invasive approach. We thought maybe if we gave the subject a jolt from the other end it would knock the obstruction back up the windpipe.
Reporter: And did that work?
Dr Hiemlich: Sadly not. But on the plus side – had the man lived he would have made an excellent soprano addition to any choir.
Reporter: But you’re not letting this setbacks get you down?
Dr Hiemlich: Not at all. Now if you’ll excuse me I must just get back to my latest v-… Oh.
Reporter: It, er, it looks like he’s dead.
Dr Hiemlich: Yes. I probably shouldn’t have administered the obstruction before I started speaking to you. Hmm. I don’t suppose you’d care to volunteer for one of our studies?
Reporter: Uh, no - thank you.
Dr. Hiemlich: Oh, well, in that case there’s only one thing to be said to that.
Reporter: And what’s that?
Dr Hiemlich: Next!