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Parenting

04th May 2020

The genius new product that could save a choking child in seconds

This works when the Heimlich manoeuvre fails.

Trine Jensen-Burke

when a child is choking

The thought of having your baby or child (or yourself, for that matter) choke on something, is probably one of the scariest things to most parents.

And much as we are as careful as careful can be, babies, once they start crawling around on the floor, are prone to putting anything they come across into their mouth. The same can be said for toddlers too, who all to easily can stick something in their mouths that do not belong there, or even chomp down bites of food that are too big to swallow, or cut the wrong way, posing quite the choking hazard.

Many of us have heard of the Heimlich manoeuvre, but few – luckily – would have had to test it out in practice.

However, now a device has been invented that is designed to suction foreign objects from the throats of choking victims when procedures such as the Heimlich manoeuvre don’t work.

The LifeVac pretty much works as a plunger  – and the inventor, Arthur Lih, has already sold his device to thousands of homes and rescue services across the US.

This is what it says on the website:

“The LifeVac is a non-powered, non-invasive, single patient portable suction device developed for resuscitating a victim with airway obstruction.”

And it is completely safe to use:

“The negative pressure generated by the force of the suction is 3 times greater than the highest recorded abdominal thrusts.  The LifeVac is capable of generating over 300 mmHg of suction. The duration of suction is minimal so LifeVac is safe and effective. No prescription required.”

Here is how it works: