Helping Save People with Disabilities from Choking with Arthur Lih

Have you ever found yourself scarfing down some food — maybe three pizzas or 16 cookies, not inspired by a real-life scenario or anything — and all of a sudden you start choking? It’s a scary time, and it’s especially nerve-wracking if you’re alone.

Arthur Lih is the inventor of LifeVac, a product that can help save lives in choking situations — and has already done so for more than 150 people.

LifeVac is particularly helpful for an often overlooked part of society: disabled people in wheelchairs. Current standard procedures for choking, like the Heimlich Maneuver, don’t really work for people if there’s a wheelchair involved. That makes a choking situation especially dangerous since it’s more difficult to lift someone out of a wheelchair.

Good People, Cool Things chatted with Arthur about LifeVac and what he hopes the company can accomplish.

Why did you create LifeVac?

About ten years ago, I visited a friend in the hospital, which has turned into a decade-long mission to change the world. My friend’s mother was having a procedure, so I stopped by to keep him company. As we were waiting, he pointed across the room to a cold, steel gurney. He said, “the last time I was here, a 7-year-old child had choked to death on that gurney.”

He recalled the chaos of staff frantically trying to rescue this child, but nothing was able to dislodge the grape. He described the pain of the parents and the uncontrollable wailing, the staff in tears, and the anguish that consumed the room. My daughter was seven at the time this story was told to me, and I could imagine the pain of losing someone you love, especially your child. In my head, I could see my daughter on that gurney, and I knew I couldn’t let that happen to her.

So, that night I started my research to see if there was something that could be used to save a choking child when the Heimlich failed. There were several products, but they all had a long thin tube attached to a form of suction. I felt that if I was in a panic, I would not trust myself to use one. I thought that there needed to be a safer panic-proof way to save a choking victim if all other measures were unsuccessful.

How does it help those with disabilities?

For those that are at a higher risk of choking, it gives them a chance. Where there might not be an option to perform abdominal thrusts or the Heimlich Maneuver or back blows LifeVac would give them an option to be rescued in a choking emergency. For those individuals who use a wheelchair, the threat of a choking incident can be a huge worry because it is extremely difficult to hoist someone out of a wheelchair to administer the Heimlich Maneuver.

Everyone deserves to be saved from choking. For many, LifeVac is their only option. I became aware that people in a wheelchair, although at a higher risk of choking, may not have the option of rescue like everyone else does.

Were there other prototypes you tried before the final product?

Yes. There were approximately 100 prototypes tried before the final product went to market.

What updates are you hoping to make to the emergency protocol choking posters?

The American Heart Association and American Red Cross guidelines do not adequately address the needs of an individual who uses a wheelchair when the abdominal thrusts or chest thrusts cannot be performed for either physical reasons or the design of the wheelchair.

On the current choking rescue poster, there are no directions for people in wheelchairs. The size and complexity of today’s chair make standard rescue next to impossible. We are taking the initiative to make this imperative change to emergency choking protocol posters because people with disabilities deserve a chance to live. Our goal is to have a non-invasive airway clearance device, LifeVac, be added to the current choking poster.

How can people reduce the risk of being in choking situations?

Awareness, Prevention, Training, and having a LifeVac. Become aware of high-risk choking foods and objects. Become trained in first aid. Become educated that a proven safe and effective rescue option is available. LifeVac has verified testimonials on 156 lives saved. Fifty-nine (59) individuals are those with a disability.

What's next for you?

Change! Legislation was introduced in both chambers at the state to:

“An act to require all schools a simple suction device that can be used by anyone, for use on people in a wheelchair or similarly incapacitated students where current procedure is not possible to prevent them from choking to death.”

We have contacted the Dept of Education to make them aware of LifeVac and that change needs to take place.

Here is an example: Our goal is to prevent senseless tragedies like Bowen Levy, who was a special needs student in Maryland. The parents of Bowen Levy, a 17-year-old student who died after choking on a glove in class, filed a lawsuit against the County Board of Education, the board president, and the principal of Central Special School, claiming the school system and its board’s negligence resulted in their son’s death. The family is seeking damages exceeding $75,000 and a jury trial on behalf of their son’s estate.

Bryan Levy said the school system’s “systematic” problem providing adequate support, staff supervision and training, along with a lack of response to multiple requests for information on an internal investigation into their son’s death, pushed the Levys to sue.

The family believes the negligence and lack of support for special needs kids that occurred at Central Special School is a county-wide issue extending beyond Bowen’s school. He’s received dozens of emails and phone calls, he said, from people asking him not to “quit the fight” for children with disabilities to be safe in school. There needs to be change made so no other families have to endure the pain of losing their child or loved one.

We are aiming to virtually eliminate the fourth leading cause of accidental death and save a million lives before my time here is up.