On October 24th, 2025 a 95-year-old woman choked on chicken and rice resulting in a total obstruction leaving her unconscious. Protocol was not followed. LifeVac successfully dislodged the obstruction on its tenth attempt. The womans daughter described the incident as follows:
“This is the second time LifeVac has saved her life!! She was finishing dinner on a tray table at her comfy chair in the living room. I was on the phone with my brother and my husband let me know that mom was choking. It was probably about 10 minutes from when I started trying until I had the airway cleared. She was not breathing and passed out for maybe a minute. Between the LifeVac and the compressions, her airway was partially restored by the time the EMTs arrived. They asked about the LifeVac as it was on the floor near us and said they have one on their rig!
I wish I had been able to suck the piece of food out without having to revert to compressions, but she was not moving air at all and was cyanotic and losing consciousness, so I didn’t have time to think, hm, will this break her bones? Fortunately, there were no fractured ribs, though I felt 2 or maybe 3 pops so I was SURE I’d smashed her up. After I did a few compressions with no positive results, I tried the LifeVac and it worked. So, I suppose it was a combination of the compressions and the LifeVac that did the trick. She has a decades-long history of swallowing issues and EGD procedures, so this is not a new thing for us but I’ve been very glad to have the Live Vac (we call it the plunger)!”
Carol H.
