On July 27th, 2025 a 2-year-old boy choked on corn resulting in a partial obstruction. Protocol was followed. LifeVac successfully dislodged the food on its second attempt. The child’s mother described the incident as follows:
“It was such a scary incident, but we are truly grateful for this life-saving device. He had just eaten a snack and had finished chewing & swallowing his food. A minute or so later, I took him out of his high chair and was dancing around our kitchen with him in my arms / on my hip. He loves music, so we were being silly, bouncing all around. I placed him down on the ground, but he let out a loud cry and was very upset. I looked down and noticed he could not breathe — he was struggling to get air in. I immediately initiated back blows over my knee while my husband (who was an arm's reach away) grabbed our LifeVac and assembled it in seconds. We used the LifeVac twice and did two rounds of back blows. His face and lips never turned purple or blue, and thankfully he was quickly breathing again. The whole incident lasted maybe 30-50 seconds if I had to guess (time to quickly initiate 2 rounds of back blows and 2 attempts of the LifeVac with him flat on the ground). He did let out a few cries throughout the incident, so we believe it was a partial blockage that allowed him to slowly bring some air in, but he most certainly could not inhale clearly at all. Once we were certain he was breathing again, I gently swept his mouth and fished out a few pieces of corn (kernels).
The whole thing was so quick that by the time I reached for my phone to dial 911 he was already breathing again. We believe that the dancing / bouncing around caused him to either regurgitate and choke on that, or he was holding some corn in his cheek that he then choked on while dancing and being silly with me a minute or two after mealtime. Lesson learned! We certainly cried a lot and hugged our baby boy a little longer last night. And we will for some time. I actually placed an order last night for one additional travel kit and one additional home kit to make sure all of our vehicles and relatives' homes are covered as well. I think I've bought something like 7 units in total (for ourselves and relatives) through the years! We never want to be without this life-saving device. Thank you again for all that you do at LifeVac. We are eternally grateful and will continue to be forever customers. A LifeVac unit will be included with every baby shower gift and housewarming gift we give from now on; no one should be without this product.”
Lauren B.