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Three Dechoker devices in cabinet installed in Iowa's Union Community School District

On March 8, I blogged An Iowa school district recently installed Dechoker anti-choking device to respond to choking emergencies -- I've asked the state education department to review.

Based on a March 15, 2018 reply I received from Department of Education Director Ryan Wise -- see below -- when it comes to medical guidelines, apparently the state has zero oversight.

How much discretion do local districts have to determine what medical treatments are provided to their students? Are the districts equipped to make those determinations? Are students receiving the highest standard of care?

Read on...

From: Peter.Heimlich@gmail.com 
Subject: blogger inquiry
To: t_fleshner@union.k12.ia.us Cc: ryan.wise@iowa.gov
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 14:10:53 -0400

Travis Fleshner
Superintendent
Union Community School District (UCSD)
200 Adams St.
La Porte City, IA 50651

Dear Mr. Fleshner,

Per the attached pdf [see below], I was referred to you - albeit indirectly - by Ryan Wise, Director of the IA Department of Education.

In a March 8, 2018 e-mail (published on my blog), I asked Mr. Wise to review the reported incorporation and installation of a plunger device called the Dechoker in your district's schools to be used to respond to a choking emergency.

Via my e-mail:

The Dechoker is not included the standards and guidelines of the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, the American Academy of Pediatrics or, to my knowledge, any established medical organization. And a keyword search today for Dechoker on PubMed provided no results, so it appears the device has not been the subject of any research published in the literature.

In other words, the effectiveness and safety of the device appears to be unproven. Therefore, it's unclear on what basis the (UCSD) chose to equip its schools with the devices, hence this outreach.

...(It's also unclear if any district) officials obtained opinions from any medical experts or first aid organizations, or an opinion from the school district's risk manager. Would you please look into that and provide me with the results?

Via Mr. Wise's March 15 reply:

We have reviewed your inquiry and have determined that this is a local issue. The Department does not have authority over the district's decision to use these devices and there are no State rules that would prohibit the district's use of the devices.

Based on that determination, I'd appreciate your answers to some quick questions for a follow-up item I'm reporting.

1) Would you please provide me with copies of the documentation on which your district relied to determine that the Dechoker was an effective and safe treatment response to a choking emergency?

2) Did any district officials obtain opinions from any medical experts or first aid organizations, and/or an opinion from the school district's risk manager? If so, would you please provide me with details and documentation?

3) To my knowledge the Dechoker is not recommended by any established first aid organizations, therefore some might consider it to be an experimental medical device. With that in mind, have parents and guardians of students been provided the opportunity to approve or deny its use on their children? If so, would you please provide details and documentation? 

Thanks for your time/consideration and I look forward to receiving your answers. And if you have any questions for me, please don't hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
Peachtree Corners, Georgia 30096 USA
ph: (208)474-7283
website: http://medfraud.info
blog: http://the-sidebar.com
e-mail: peter.heimlich@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/medfraud_pmh

cc: Ryan Wise

 

UPDATE 3/13/14: Last night via Anti-choking device business raided, accused of investment scheme, investigative reporter Matthew Grant at FOX46 in Charlotte, NC,  picked up my scoop and moved it forward, My 3/10/18 item is below the video.

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In the course of researching my dad's bizarre career and his namesake anti-choking maneuver, I've occasionally reported about anti-choking devices that have been marketed over the years, for example, the Heimlich Helper, the LifeVac, and the Dechoker.

Click the links and you'll see that I've reported mostly about the LifeVac because, based on casual observation, that device has been more aggressively promoted via press releases, media reports, and social media. More promo materials means more for me (or anyone else) to report.

Two unrelated legal cases -- one in North Carolina, the other in Louisville, Kentucky -- involving the company marketing the Dechoker appear likely to provide me with more reporting opportunities.  

I. On February 21, I reported Re: $2 million investment scheme, North Carolina Secretary of State's Securities Division issues temporary cease & desist order to Concord company selling Dechoker anti-choking device -- meanwhile the company's UK division claims the device has saved 14 lives(!)

The date of the temporary cease and desist order was February 15, 2018.

To my knowledge unreported until now, according to a search warrant issued by the Superior Court of Wake County, that same day agents of the North Carolina Secretary of State's Securities Division seized computers and files from the offices of Dechoker LLC located at 4454 Raceway Drive in Concord.


Here's the 36-page search warrant with supporting records -- click here to download a copy.



This was posted yesterday on the website of Dechoker LLC:



 

II. Via FDA approves new lifesaving device based out of Louisville by anchor/reporter Ann Bowdan, WLKY-TV News, October 30, 2015:

(Recently), the Food and Drug Administration approved a new device being touted as an alternative method to the Heimlich [for responding to a choking emergency].

The alternative device is called the Dechoker, and its headquarters is right here in Louisville.

"The Heimlich works on positive pressure and we work on negative pressure, or suction. In other words, it's a vacuum,” Dechoker CEO Christopher Kellogg said.

..."Obviously there's a health care hub here and the city of Louisville has been absolutely wonderful to work with open arms," Kellogg said.

...But there are some skeptics.

Peter Heimlich, the son of Henry Heimlich, who created the Heimlich maneuver, questions the validity of the FDA’s approval of the device.

He believes more published research is needed. 

The headline and lede of Bowdan's story -- that the Dechoker was approved by the FDA -- appears to have originated with Dechoker LLC:


I'll ask the FDA and report the results.

To my knowledge unreported until now, a year after the WLKY report aired, Christopher Kellogg filed a lawsuit against Dechoker LLC in Jefferson County, Kentucky, Circuit Court claiming breach of contract, unpaid salary, and other allegations.

According to court records accessed today:


Here's the October 26, 2016 complaint and December 21, 2016 response. Click here to download copies.

SENT VIA E-MAIL & FAX

February 21, 2018

Stacey Doty
Employment and Selection Manager
Department of Human Resources
The City of Akron, OH

Dear Ms. Doty:

This is a complaint re: questionable, possibly harmful medical recommendations made by Joseph Shumaker, EMS Lieutenant at your city's fire department. I'm requesting that your office investigate the following and to provide me with a determination.

Re: my February 14 blog item, Akron Fire Dept. EMS trainer re: responding to choking infants: Don't worry about breaking the baby's bones or cracking its ribs -- and a question for criminal attorneys, the following is from an interview that Lt. Shumaker, representing your city, gave to reporter Adrienne Dipiazza in a news report that aired February 13 on Cleveland's FOX 8, How to save a life: Help someone who is choking:

DiPiazza: (The Akron Fire Department's Lt. Joe) Shumaker says don’t be afraid of hurting the baby, and forceful motions are the only thing that will help them breathe again.

Shumaker: “Can you cause some injury? Can you break a bone? Can you crack a rib? Perhaps, but in the end run the child will be breathing which is what we want as a result,” he said.

Per my website, in 2002 my wife and I started researching the career of my father, the late Henry J. Heimlich MD of Cincinnati, and the history of his namesake anti-choking maneuver. Since 2003 our work and my outreach to journalists has resulted in scores of mainstream print and broadcast media reports. We have never come across recommendations remotely similar to Lt. Shumaker's.

Further, Lt. Shumaker's recommendations do not appear in the guidelines of the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, the American Academy of Pediatrics, or, to my knowledge, any other legitimate source of lifesaving first aid information. Further, I'd be surprised if his recommendations are part of your city's EMS training guidelines or those of any government agency anywhere in the United States.

To the best of my knowledge, Lt. Shumaker appears to have pulled his recommendations out of thin air. If that's the case, he provided unsubstantiated medical information to a reporter. More seriously, I'm concerned that his recommendations may result in serious injuries to babies or worse.

After publishing my blog item, I brought these concerns to the offices of Fire Chief Clarence Tucker and Mayor Dan Horrigan. The former did not respond to my questions and Ellen Lander Nischt, Mayor Horrigan's press secretary, told me that her office stands behind Lt. Shumaker's recommendations. I consider those responses to be unacceptable, hence this complaint.

In order to address the matter, this is to request that you obtain and review all relevant training materials and provide me with any documentation that supports Lt. Shumaker's recommendations. In the event no such documentation exists, this is to request that your office take appropriate action.

Thank you for your time/consideration and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
Peachtree Corners, Georgia 30096 USA
ph: (208)474-7283
website: http://medfraud.info
blog: http://the-sidebar.com
e-mail: peter.heimlich@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/medfraud_pmh

cc: Donald Rice, Director of Human Resources

Clip via How to save a life: Help someone who is choking by Adrienne DiPiazza, FOX 8 News Cleveland, February 13, 2018:



Transcript at about time stamp :35:

DiPiazza: (The Akron Fire Department's Lt. Joe) Shumaker says don’t be afraid of hurting the baby, and forceful motions are the only thing that will help them breathe again.

Shumaker: “Can you cause some injury? Can you break a bone? Can you crack a rib? Perhaps, but in the end run the child will be breathing which is what we want as a result,” he said.

I have an inquiry in to the Akron Fire Department and will report the results.

Tangentially related, one of my research interests is tracking child abuse cases involving the alleged use of the Heimlich maneuver as an alibi.

I've compiled a number of media reports in which defendants claimed that severe or fatal injuries sustained by a baby or child in their care resulted from the adult supposedly responding to a choking emergency.

I shared my research with reporter Justin Strawser at the Sunbury, PA Daily Item who reported this November 13, 2015 story, Suspects often claim abuse injuries stem from CPR, Heimlich effort.

Here's a question for any criminal attorneys reading this: Can Lt. Shumaker's advice benefit a defendant in such a case?

Click here to e-mail me.

Since its founding nearly 13 years ago, The Huffington Post has relied heavily on unpaid contributors, whose ranks included aspiring writers, citizen journalists and celebrities from the Rolodex of the site’s co-founder Arianna Huffington.

...On Thursday, it said it was immediately dissolving its self-publishing contributors platform — which has mushroomed to include 100,000 writers — in what is perhaps the most significant break from the past under its editor in chief, Lydia Polgreen...

(Recently) a contributor with the byline Waqas KH published an article about Felix Sater, an associate of President Trump, that he had been paid to post. The site has since deleted the article.

My original story is below the red hash marks.

1/4/17 UPDATE


John Reynolds at the UK Press Gazette -- which, according to its website, "has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965" -- picked up the story and credited me. The article includes this new reporting:

Owen Conlon, assistant news editor of the Irish Sun, said on Twitter: “While both papers should have checked with Byrne, this was a deliberate attempt to get false information in. Irish Sun spoke to same woman. When told Byrne denied it, she replied: ‘He’s probably being modest.'”

1/10/17 UPDATE

Sydney Smith at US press watchdog iMedia Ethics picked up the story and credited me. Her article includes:

iMediaEthics has contacted both the Standard and Mail to ask how they learned about the story, how they attempted to fact check and if they are or have published corrections.

Click here for inquiries I sent to both papers on January 5.

As It Happens, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio news magazine, saw Sydney's story and aired an interview I did with co-host Carol Off. Click here for the audio and the transcript which includes:

Ed Byrne is a well-known Irish comedian. And He's pretty funny. In fact, he’s so funny you could die laughing, unless he saves you. And if you’re a reader of the London Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, you could almost believe Mr. Byrne had done just that, by saving an audience member from choking at one of his shows. But when one investigative blogger heard the choking story, something about it stuck in his craw. So he decided to get to the bottom of it. 

...PETER: (Ed Byrne) and I have exchanged a couple of tweets. Earlier today, I tweeted that I was confident that he should be able to get five minutes of stand-up out of this.

2/19/18 UPDATE:

Two days after I asked London Evening Standard editor George Osborne to address the matter, the paper published a thorough re-write at the original URL by reporter Martin Coulter, who admitted he got punk'd by a source ("Morgan Wilson").

Screenshot from London Evening Standard story by Martin Coulter

Two leading UK newspapers have disappeared a bogus story without informing readers that their reporters got hosed by a source.

Via Google News, here are screen shots of articles by reporters Alexander Matthews of the Mail Online* and Martin Coulter of the London Evening Standard:

Last night I tweeted this inquiry to Mr. Matthews and to Mr. Byrne:

source

Published four hours ago by the Bradford Telegraph & Argus:

source

The Mail Online and Evening Standard articles are now MIA with no indication to readers why the articles were disappeared:

source

source

I'll follow up with both papers and report the results.

Click here for a re-publication of Mr. Matthews' Mail Online story.

Click here for a cached version of Mr. Coulter's Evening Standard story.

As it happens, this isn't Byrne's first "Heimlich headline."

From a couple years ago:

source

* In my original post, I mistakenly called the publication the Daily Mail rather than the Mail Online. Regret the error!

source

According to a press release they issued about a year ago, the Cincinnati-area American Heritage Girls is the "premier national character development organization for young women that embraces Christian values...Currently, American Heritage Girls has over 43,000 Members [sic] located in every state..."

According to a 2014 press release, the American Heritage Girls formed a "National Cooperative Venture" with Heimlich Heroes,  a "Deaconess Associations, Inc. and Heimlich Institute initiative that teaches kids as young as seven how to become a hero by learning to perform the Heimlich Maneuver correctly in order to save a life. Both organizations are based in Cincinnati."

Via American Heritage Girls Adult Training, Heimlich Heroes blog, December 12, 2017:

In honor of Heimlich Heroes week American Heritage Girls corporate office trained their staff using our Teen and Adult program!

Kristi Tatro, National Director of Girl Impact, spearheaded the training to set an example for their members and community.

AHG staff members went through the Heimlich Heroes Teen and Adult training using our new training video...

Tatro said, “AHG highly endorses and encourages this program. It’s easy and fun to learn!”

Via this clip from the Heimlich Heroes "new training video," here's the problem:



I'm unaware of any medical organization or medical expert that recommends performing "the Heimlich" (abdominal thrusts) on choking infants.

Why not?

According to recent e-mails I received from executives at the American Heart Association and American Red Cross, doing so "may cause injuries."

Further, I'm unaware of any published research on the subject.

In other words, the American Heritage Girls "highly endorses and encourages" teaching the public to perform an unapproved, potentially harmful medical procedure on babies.

I'm e-mailing this item to Ms. Tatro with an invitation to respond.