Description

April 3, 2003

Sir Peter J. Morris, FRS, PRCS, President
International Society of Surgery

Ronald K. Tompkins, MD, Editor-in-Chief
World Journal of Surgery

A. Jay Block, MD, Editor-In-Chief
Chest

Dear Dr. Morris, Dr. Tompkins, and Dr. Block:

This letter is to bring to your attention an allegation that the International Society of Surgery, the World Journal of Surgery, and the American medical journal, Diseases of the Chest, have been defrauded by Dr. Henry J. Heimlich of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, best known for the Heimlich maneuver.

This matter concerns the provenance of the surgical procedure for the esophagus known as the Reversed Gastric Tube operation (RGT). This addresses nearly 50 years of false claims by Dr. Heimlich that he invented the RGT operation, as well as his unauthorized use the true inventor’s name and the appropriation of his work in a scientific paper submitted to the International Society of Surgery (ISS) and his planting a fraudulent citation in Diseases of the Chest with the intent to deceive.