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Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

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Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#51

Post by datashovel »

omarchowdhury wrote: post #50
datashovel wrote: post #39

I'm curious to know the actual numbers (ie. force a human body can exert when attempting to breath in vs opposite pressure caused by this device or heimlich). I performed heimlich on a roommate a long time ago when I was in college, but it turns out the pressure he was breathing in with was apparently more than the force I exerted trying to get him to push the object out. I simply helped dislodge the object, but it e…

And what happened after that?

He was fine as far as we all knew. He ended up leaving to go back home a few months after, and I wasn't close so we didn't stay in touch. I can't give a long-term prognosis, but I imagine the human body probably has mechanisms to deal with that sort of thing.

He didn't feel concerned enough about it to go to the hospital afterwards, and we were just college students so we didn't feel we had any reason to override his decision.

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#52

Post by mhb »

chazu wrote: post #41
mhb wrote: post #34

It's a clever idea, but is the vision for this to have one hanging on the wall in a vast number of public places? It says there are 160,000 choking deaths worldwide annually. Presumably the Heimlich maneuver would have worked on some number of those. What is the marginal number of lives saved and at what cost?

The device(s) in question are merely syringes with masks and a tube connected. If we assume that the average citizen in the developed world is OK with current levels of spending on public health with respect to emergency medical treatment, I doubt that a device such as this would necessitate concerns about "at what cost" any given number of lives are being saved. In other words, dude its 150 bucks!

That's reasonable when deciding whether to get one for your house. Not so much when deciding whether it's generally a good value compared to other ways of saving lives. Then we're talking about ($150 x n)/(lives saved compared to the alternatives). Before you advocate it, maybe you should get an idea what n and the denominator are.

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#53

Post by nsgi »

mhb wrote: post #49
nsgi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Heimlich manoeuvre worked on none of them, because they died. It might have been possible to prevent some of those deaths with wider or more effective provision, but that would also have costs.

I'm thinking that there is quite a bit of cost saved by posting a sheet of paper explaining the Heimlich maneuver instead of installing one of these devices. Give out free smoke detectors with the saved money.

If saving thousands of lives was that easy, someone would probably have already done it.

Edit: Not saying it couldn't help, but I don't think it's reasonable to assume most of those lives could be saved by putting some posters up unless you have some evidence.

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#54

Post by moogleii »

mhb wrote: post #34

It's a clever idea, but is the vision for this to have one hanging on the wall in a vast number of public places? It says there are 160,000 choking deaths worldwide annually. Presumably the Heimlich maneuver would have worked on some number of those. What is the marginal number of lives saved and at what cost?

Every restaurant in NYC seems to have a defibrillator, so it could be doable.

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#55

Post by TomStephenson »

chazu wrote: post #46
learc83 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a beard, and that's the first thing I thought of. I would guess that it's designed to be pretty forgiving, i.e., no needing a perfect seal. I'm assuming the company knows the answer to this, I think I'll send them an email.

BRB shaving my face.

I found this on their site https://vimeo.com/user31799477/review/143372612/72fa68229b

Also, it seem all you have to do for a beard is apply a little more pressure to form that seal

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#56

Post by Corrado »

dx211 wrote: post #32
gwern wrote: post #25

Some googling ( https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2011&q=dechoker&hl... ) suggests there are no trials on the Dechoker yet. While that makes sense (realistic choking must be hard to induce experimentally, and any sort of experiment in the wild suffers from choking being rare), it does make me wonder how well it works.

It seems like if they don't have enough pressure in their lungs to expel the bite of ham sandwich, you wouldn't necessarily be able to suck it out with this device. On the other hand, I have a hard time blowing up those skinny balloons for balloon animals, but the pump thing they sell with them does it like a champ.

I doubt that you can completely deflate your lungs by exhaling; even if you try your hardest to exhale as deeply as you can. There would always be some air in the lungs so that the pressure difference generated by this device would almost certainly be enough to pop the blockage out of your trachea.

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#57

Post by alvinktai »

encoderer wrote: post #14
Consultant32452 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not every restaurant has a defibrillator, but every restaurant may want one of these if it's really that effective.

And they should have it in the bathroom! I've heard from an EMT friend that most choking deaths happen in restaurant bathrooms. Somebody gets up to excuse themselves to be polite and dies alone beside the dyson hand dryers.

I know if I were choking, I don't know how polite I would be to everyone around me

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#58

Post by alvinktai »

wanderfowl wrote: post #2

I love the idea, and it's just the kind of thing I'm paranoid enough to own, but the price is a bit up there. Hoping it comes down over time. But if I owned a restaurant, I'd be all over this, in a "Break Glass" kind of case.

My guess is that as manufacturing costs lower and competitors realize the market, the price will eventually go down. Even offices, schools and other public places could benefit from having this also.

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#59

Post by alvinktai »

bsder wrote: post #36
ecaron wrote: post #19

For $150, it seems very overpriced to me. I expected this to be in the $30 range. Am I missing some profound piece of engineering that warrants this price? Or is more of a "I think I can charge $X and make s 9x profit" move (which I don't fundamental object to.)

> Am I missing some profound piece of engineering that warrants this price? Liability insurance and FDA approval. If you've ever seen the words "For Research Purposes Only" on equipment, that's an indication of profitable device, but small market. I know people who sell equipment to IVF (in-vitro fertilization) labs that are insane about safety, so their equipment is certainly good enough for general use. However, th…

Agreed. Developing a medical device is not cheap and unlike most consumer products, these devices need to go through rigorous safety testing to make sure it does what it says it does. A lot of capital is needed just to comply with FDA regulations.

Re: Dechoker medical device could end deaths by choking

#60

Post by ihsw »

noomerikal wrote: post #45

I just had a CPR class this week (baby due 11/30) and was thinking along these lines - isn't there another way. Side note for some of the other comments - there are multiple ways to apply pressure to the thoracic cavity in order to express something lodged in the throat. If the person is large and you cannot wrap your arms around them, have them stand with their back against the wall and you thrust from the front jus…

Indeed, you would be surprised by how often individuals suffer minor rib damage while being resuscitated.
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