On July 27th, 2025 a 24-year-old man choked on grilled cheese with ham resulting in a partial obstruction. Protocol was followed. LifeVac successfully dislodged the obstruction on its second attempt. The man’s mother described the incident as follows:
“My son is a 24-year-old young man with Down Syndrome and autistic tendencies. He is non-verbal and doesn't seem to always understand/remember to chew properly. His brain seems to understand to chew "crunchy" things all right, but not always other types of consistencies. Sometimes he chews better than others, and this has been a lifelong struggle with him. Over the years we have gone between grinding his food and slowly letting him work on chewing more and more. We tend to go back and forth depending on how he seems to be doing, but it is unpredictable. Most of the time if he happens to try to swallow an unmanageable bite, he is able to swallow fully or cough up the bite that isn't chewed properly.
This particular time he was eating a grilled cheese sandwich made with American cheese and thin sliced ham (2 slices). Unbeknownst to us, he had taken a large bite that contained quite a bit of ham that had rolled up into a tube. It didn't appear that the meat had been chewed so it seemed to just lodge in his throat. He was able to cough up some of the bread and cheese, but we never saw meat. He was still continuing to breathe small breaths, but tears were running down his face. He was still sitting in his chair and did not lose consciousness. After many attempts to help him cough it out or throw it up, we decided to grab the LifeVac. He was afraid of my husband putting the mask over his mouth, so he was combative at first. We had to restrain his arms and hold his head still. The first real attempt was unsuccessful, but the second time we got a good seal around his mouth it pulled the large meat "tube" out and it landed in his lap. We were just so relieved! It was amazing and we are so thankful that we had it when this happened. He was immediately fine and drank some water soon afterwards. After we all had time to calm down, he pointed at the sandwich and wanted more to eat... Needless to say, we ground up the remaining portion of the sandwich before letting him eat it later that day! We are thankful for you making this available to us as parents. I always wondered when we might need it and almost exactly 2 years to the day since we had ordered ours, we pulled it out!”
Debra E.
