On October 7th, 2025 a 50-year-old man choked on a gummy vitamin resulting in a total obstruction. Protocol was not followed as he is a wheelchair user. LifeVac successfully dislodged the obstruction on its second attempt. His wife described the incident as follows:
“My husband has ALS. Before putting him in bed, he was being hoisted by the ceiling Hoyer lift. While in the sling, in the sitting position, I decided to give him his medication. One of which is in gummy form. Due to how ALS has started to affect his swallowing abilities, he chewed it up but it still got lodged. He started making terrible noises. Due to being paralyzed in all his extremities, he has no ability to make a “choking” gesture or alert me at all as to what’s happening. I asked a couple times if he was choking (or if it just went ‘down the wrong pipe’) and he wouldn’t respond so I realized he was actually choking. I ran to the dining room to get the LifeVac, ran back to the bedroom, and used it twice. The first time I didn’t press hard enough to hold it firmly in place. So, the second time I did and it sucked the gummy right out. It was in tons of little pieces but must have lodged together when he tried to swallow it. Your LifeVac product is something that every single ALS patient with pseudo bulbar symptoms (swallowing issues) should have. When someone with ALS is in a sling, in a Hoyer lift, in a wheelchair, or even in bed, due to being paralyzed, they are “dead weight”. So, it would be literally impossible to give him abdominal thrust or even proper back thrust. LifeVac is something we have in our home, in our car, and we even bought one for our daughter’s house for when we are there. Now after this choking incident we’ve decided we will just always keep It hanging right on his wheelchair hook because even that 20 seconds it took me to run and get it could have been 20 seconds too long.
My husband had just retired from 25 years as a police officer and over 30 as an EMT where his entire job revolved around helping & saving people. And in his time of need, in his current condition, LifeVac saved him. Watching my husband of 27 years suffer with his ALS diagnosis and his rapid decline has been awful. But I am blessed to be able to care for him in our home and your LifeVac gives me the confidence to know that I can handle a choking incident effectively. Hopefully more families struggling with ALS see this testimonial and make a purchase as well. We will always be grateful.”
Nancy S.
