On February 14th a one-year-old boy from Texas choked on a Cheez It which resulted in a total obstruction (turned blue). BLS protocol was performed by the child’s father but was unsuccessful. LifeVac was used twice and successfully dislodged the food saving his life. Here is the father’s frightening account of what happened that day.
“To provide you with a little backstory and synopsis of the incident, I was a police officer in California for 5 years. I first heard about your devices from our CPR and First Aid classes, but unfortunately, the city wouldn’t cover them, but many elected to buy them. Unfortunately, at that time, I did not. I have responded to many CPR/choking-related incidents in my time as a police officer and felt pretty confident in my skills with the Heimlich and CPR techniques. As soon as my son was born, I felt that confidence dimmer slightly and sought the need to purchase the LifeVac device as a security blanket. My wife, who is an active-duty United States Navy Corpsman and has extensive experience in the medical field, also felt my same concerns. We chalked it up to being first-time parents and shook the worries away knowing we had the device stored away. As months passed with our son growing, I got complacent with the LifeVac device and stopped carrying it in our vehicle not really paying attention to where we last kept it. Fast forward to a month ago, I was on Facebook and saw an ad for the Life Vac device and had to remind myself where it was last placed. I eventually found it after a brief search and placed it in an easily accessible location, should I ever need it. I never thought in my life that I would have to use that device to save my Son’s life.
Last week, my son and I were sitting on our couch watching Disney movies and eating Cheez-Its together waiting for my wife to return from work. My wife had entered the front door and I got up to throw some trash away while my son stayed on the couch waiting to greet his mom. While he had a cracker in his mouth, he was so excited to see his mother, that he began to jump up and down and quickly inhaled that cracker and began to make uncomfortable sounds. I quickly realized that he got a cracker stuck and was waiting to see if he could cough it out on his own, but his lips began to turn purple, and saw his chest retracting as he made failed attempts to take in air. I cannot forget the look on my son’s face when he tried to cry but couldn’t make a sound. I swiftly began back blows and gave him 5 very firm strikes but was unable to dislodge the cracker. I quickly remembered that I had placed the LifeVac in a cabinet that was five feet away. I quickly retrieved it while my wife placed my son on his back. I placed the face seal around his mouth and provided firm pressure to ensure a good seal. After two pulls, I was able to dislodge the cracker and was thankful to hear screams coming from his lungs. I was able to do a finger sweep for the remainder of crackers and he eventually vomited his lunch and any other remaining crackers. I immediately took a picture of the aftermath and had to call all of my family members with children to purchase your device. Your device saved my son’s life. I will forever keep one in his diaper bag, house, and car. I cannot thank you enough for creating such an amazing device.”
