For more than 50 years, the best-known answer to choking has carried one man’s name. Dr. Henry Heimlich’s technique won its place on simplicity, research and, as Thursday’s Personal Journal notes, the doctor’s own savvy salesmanship. Now it has competition. Advocates, device makers and some politicians contend that the Heimlich and back blows can fall short, and they’re campaigning, online and in statehouses, for portable suction devices that pull a stuck object from the airway.
Under a Texas law passed last year, every school campus must keep at least one device on hand, plus someone on staff who knows how to use it. New York City has a similar law but says it won’t put it into effect unless medical guidelines recommend the devices; bills have been considered in at least nine other states, while pushback has come from state health departments, emergency responders and teachers unions. The leading maker, LifeVac, has given schools more than 10,000 devices and sells a four-device school kit for nearly $280. Its inventor and chief executive, Arthur Lih, expects $70 million in global revenue this year.
Authorized isn’t the same as recommended
In March, LifeVac became the only suction-based anti-choking device authorized by the FDA, and only as a second-line tool for when traditional methods have failed; the agency cautions that grabbing one before the standard steps could slow a rescue. The American Heart Association and the American Red Cross still don’t recommend the devices. “It might work, but we don’t know,” said Dr. Benny Joyner, a pediatrician who co-chairs the AHA’s pediatric basic life-support guidelines. Lih cites 22 independent studies, says LifeVac promotes the device only as a backup and says it offers an option when disability, obesity or pregnancy makes standard methods impractical. A doctor who led one of those studies says the published research rests on case reports, mannequins and cadavers.
About 5,000 people die from choking in the U.S. each year, and it’s one of the leading causes of death in children, who often eat fast and distracted in school lunchrooms. In February, an eight-year-old boy in Manvel, Texas, choked on a grape at school and died. His mother, Kenzie Gray, and accounts of that day say school staff, a nurse among them, and emergency responders tried the Heimlich, a LifeVac, a defibrillator and CPR. LifeVac says it never got confirmation a device was used; the school didn’t comment. Her focus is on training: she wants teachers practiced, in person, in the traditional rescue methods, and she says that kind of training became required at his school only after his death.
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In insurance terms (M11), the skill is the policy and the device is, at most, a rider. The FDA’s own wording says as much: this device is for after the standard methods have failed. So the most useful move for a household isn’t a purchase. It’s a certified first-aid and CPR class through the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross, for parents, grandparents and sitters alike, and following that guidance as it’s updated.
When a safety product is marketed hard and the independent guideline bodies haven’t endorsed it, authorized and recommended are different words for a reason. Read the regulator’s exact language, check what the guidelines say, and let that, not the advertising, decide what earns a place in the drawer. That habit travels well beyond choking devices.