LifeVac Choking Rescue Device for Kids and Adults

Hi, I got this for my elderly father who almost died from choking on a pill on Christmas. My mother is hard of hearing and sometimes doesn't know when he's in trouble. It was a big scare because I've never seen him choke to the point of grasping and stamping his feet and slapping things desperately. Anyway, I just bought this and sent it to him. He was very thankful and read the directions several times and watched several videos on how to work it. There are two major problems why I am returning this. 1) it takes a LOT of strength to push the plunger down, which is not useful to the elderly or doing to oneself while struggling, and 2) it didn't work on him. My dad just called me and had a bout of choking on his pills again, and the device did not work. He said he felt a bit of suction, but it did not pull the pill out. So my guess is the LifeVac only works on certain foods and they have to be caught on certain parts of the throat. But it helped my dad zilch. Zero. Not for elderly folk who choke on pills. *UPDATE 2/23/21* Bumping another star because customer service is great and attentive. But there are a lot of dangerous things I learned about this device that I think people should know. It was explained to me that the device is designed to work when the airway is “fully” blocked. If my dad was unconscious, that would mean his airway was fully blocked. So the fact that my dad had to scramble to find a piece of food to “swallow” to help get the pill down means that the airway was not “fully” blocked—which customer service said was not a device failure. So take this with caution—like I previously said, this device is only for certain kinds of choking. Sadly, the deadly kind, and I probably will not purchase again to verify. Another problem is that my dad had to use the LifeVac on himself. My mom is elderly too and about 80% deaf, so if she’s somewhere else in the house without her hearing aids or still asleep, she won’t know my dad is choking. From my understanding, LifeVac pretty much explained to me that the device works much better when another person uses it on the person choking. You also have to strongly press the mask down on the face so no air can come out, and have a rigid grip to push down and quickly pull up. My father tried this 3 times on himself to no avail, and my conclusion is this device is not intended for elderly people to use on themselves, which I feel should be a big disclaimer. A device that only works when someone else uses it on the choking victim is VERY different from a device that anybody can use. I live in a different city, so it’s just my dad and mom together. If the choking victim is alone, I don’t recommend they use this on themselves