On March 25th, 2026 a 11 month old girl choked on a frozen peach resulting in a total obstruction. Protocol was not followed. LifeVac dislodged the obstruction on its second attempt. The childs grandmother described the incident as follows:
“I am the child’s grandmother and I care for her daily while her parents are working. My training consists of one first aid training for choking and CPR which was almost a year ago. I have no medical training, and I do not perform well in emergencies - I freeze up. So when my granddaughter accidentally sucked in the whole piece of frozen peach (I was holding it for her to suck on because of teething pain) and it immediately lodged in her throat, I was stunned. Her lips and face started turning blue almost immediately. My brain just stopped - I couldn’t recall the back blows/and thrusts procedure, so I put her over my knee and tried some sort of incorrect Heimlich attempt — and it did not work. In the midst of my sheer panic, I remembered that her dad had purchased a LifeVac for each of our homes. I ran to the closet and tried using it but I didn’t know if I could lay her down for fear of the peach going farther down. But I wasn’t able to get the mask on her properly with her sitting up. It wasn’t working - nothing was working. My next step was to run two doors down to my neighbor’s house, desperately hoping she was home (she’s an ER nurse). I rang the doorbell then dropped to the ground and again tried the LifeVac, this time with her laying down. The mask fit well this time, and with one pump, the fruit popped right out. It was unreal!
It makes me cry remembering the unbelievable relief to see her breathing again. I am overwhelmed with emotion recalling that day. I’ve never been in a life-and-death situation before, and especially not with my own granddaughter who was relying completely on me. There was no one else around who could help. The panic I felt was intense. The day could’ve ended so differently if LifeVac hadn’t been there to save her. I am eternally grateful to LifeVac, of course, but clearly to God as well who let my brain work enough to remember that I had the LifeVac! I can’t say enough positive words about a device that worked so effectively even in the hands of someone frozen in panic.”
Tami C.
