Life Saved #3746

On March 19, 2025, an 11-month-old boy choked on a cooked cinnamon apple, causing a total obstruction. Protocol was followed. Protocol was followed. LifeVac successfully dislodged the food on the first attempt.

The child’s mother described the incident as follows:

”I am 38, and an adult acute care NP and have been in nursing practice for 15 years in cardiology. My husband is 32, and a cardiac surgery PA who has been in practice for 5 years. We have 2 kids – a 2 ½ year old daughter and an 11-month-old son. We started solids early on (around 6 months) with both kids using Baby Led Weaning (BLW) to encourage self-feeding so that our kids would experience a variety of foods, limit pickiness, and decrease the risk of choking – as BLW and self -feeding allows babies to rely on their own ability to manipulate foods though gagging tends to be more common. So, whenever our kids have been eating, if they were gagging, we would let them gag and monitor closely, letting them figure out the food themselves.

Last week, our son was eating bite-sized cooked cinnamon apples at dinner. He was very hungry so he was shoveling in pieces and we were keeping a close eye on him. Initially he seemed to be gagging so we were watching him closely. However, we quickly realized his gagging turned to choking. My husband and I both have extensive training in BLS and ACLS so I grabbed him out of his highchair, threw him over my leg and started administering hard and fast back blows to no avail. His lips were turning blue. As I was doing this, my husband was grabbing the LifeVac device which is kept in a drawer right beside our highchair. We put our son on the ground, placed the LifeVac on his face and with one pump, sucked the apple piece out.

The color immediately returned to his face and he began to cry. He never lost consciousness but had we not had the LifeVac that day could have turned out very different. Even with our training and experience, we understand how different that day could have gone. I remember thinking “We will never need this” when I first purchased the device. Now I have purchased a travel device to keep in our diaper bag so we are never without one, and I’ve told everyone I know about it.”

Amber