According to a statement released by the company that manufactures LifeVac, an airway clearance device (ACD), it was a Christmas miracle.
A Long Island woman discovered her daughter was choking on a piece of apple earlier this month and used the LifeVac to save her daughter’s life. Melody’s grandmother had given her the LifeVac the previous year as a Christmas gift.
“She never thought she would use it,” the statement said. “But almost a year to the day, Melody found herself in a situation where LifeVac was the only solution.”
After trying to dislodge the food using back slaps, the mother - only identified as Melody S in a press release - went for the LifeVac.
"This LifeVac right here is the best Christmas present I have ever gotten,” Melody said in the statement.
A great outcome for Melody and her daughter. While LifeVac and other ACDs are not standard protocol for choking victims yet they are becoming more popular. One investigative report in Pittsburgh said that “neither the American Heart Association nor the Red Cross include LifeVac or other anti-choking devices in their CPR protocol.”
LifeVac says on its website that almost 600 lives have been saved by the device and millions have already been sold.
Independent studies are few on the effectiveness of the device but more are being conducted.
“Non-invasive and minimally invasive ACDs are novel interventions with positive initial findings,” concluded one such study published in 2022 “Prospective evaluation, independent of manufacturers, that improves data quality will further determine the devices respective roles in the response of healthcare workers and layrescuers to a choking person.”