In March, the Garland Fire Department saved the life of a 5-month-old using newly purchased equipment. Ambulance 11 arrived on scene to find the girl in her mother’s arms. She was turning blue, unable to make a sound and not moving air.
After chest compressions and back blows failed to dislodge the obstruction in her airway, paramedics used the LifeVac device. The device successfully cleared the baby’s airway and she let out a loud scream immediately, indicating she was breathing again. The patient was carried to the ambulance, where she was transported to the emergency room. On scene to transport time was three minutes.
Within a minute of removing the obstruction, the patient had her color back. She was placed on oxygen. Her pulse oximetry registered at 96% and her breath sounds were clear. Once at the hospital, the patient was alert and smiling. From there, patient care was transferred to emergency room staff. CBS News later interviewed Garland Drive Engineer Melody Gunnoe and Firefighter Kelcey Kasper, the paramedics who saved the child.
The LifeVac is a simple device that can pull out a foreign object from a person’s airway when the traditional Heimlich maneuver fails to remove the choking hazard. Similar devices have been available to the public and have proven to be highly successful.
Garland’s Paramedic Advisory Board inquired about outfitting the city’s ambulances with this device. Officials from Medical City Plano, Garland’s medical control, provided research that showed the devices were safe and effective.
After approval from the board, Support Services personnel made the purchase and distributed LifeVacs to all Garland ambulances. And within weeks of distributing the equipment to the stations, the life of a choking baby was saved.
Information provided by city of Garland.
About: The vision of LifeVac came from a story that Arthur Lih, founder and CEO of LifeVac, heard of a woman in a hospital weeping following the death of her young son. The reason for his death was that a grape had become lodged in his windpipe and the Heimlich Maneuver did not work. Once he heard the story he set out to invent an apparatus that could clear an airway.
Arthur, Dr. Brody, and a few close friends set out to bring LifeVac to the public by establishing a research and development facility located in Springfield Gardens, NY where we are producing the upper airway clearing device in order to bring the safest, simplest method to save an aspirating person. Our goal is to save as many lives as possible throughout the world.