8 - The Heimlich Maneuver

Summary

Clubfoot is a serious birth defect in which an infant’s foot is twisted inward and downward. It is usually an obvious and isolated defect for otherwise normal and healthy newborns. If untreated, then clubfoot does not spontaneously improve. As affected children develop, they may come to walk on their ankles or on the sides of their feet, creating a painful movement disability. Many different devices and techniques, including surgery, were deployed to correct clubfoot – with limited success, at best. However, an immigrant to the United States who was displaced by the Spanish Civil War changed all that. Ignacio Ponseti developed a highly effective, nonsurgical method to return the infant’s developing foot to its normal position using progressive manipulation and plaster casting. How Ponseti devised his lifechanging method is an amazing story, especially as it revived, revised, and publicized a technique originated by Hippocrates some 2,400 years ago!