Dr. Heimlich said he stood up and moved behind Ms. Ris’s chair, turning her slightly so her back was facing him across the armrest.

“I made a fist of my right hand — you can do it with either hand, by the way — and put my arms around her,” he said.

He placed the thumb side of his fist just above her belly button and below the chest to compress the air in her lungs. “I did it three times, and it apparently was pretty much done on the first time,” he said.

“A piece of meat with a little bone attached flew out of her mouth.”

Color returned to her face. Dr. Heimlich said everyone at the table went back to eating.

Is this the first time Dr. Heimlich has ever used the maneuver to save a life?

“Yes, this is,” he said Friday. “I originally did my research studies that led to my developing it, which was in 1974, and I never considered that I would be doing it myself.”

The record is murky in that regard. A BBC article in 2003 quoted the doctor, then 83, describing a similar encounter where he tried the maneuver on a fellow diner, a man, although the story lacked details such as a precise date, location and name. A New Yorker article in 2006 made reference to a similar incident, also without details. But a son, Phil Heimlich, said his father had never mentioned any previous incidents to him. The doctor himself did not return a follow-up call.