LifeVac anti-choking devices now in 10 establishments

Contributed photo
CDH-Vergas Fire Department First Captain Kevin Zitzow presents a LifeVac anti-choking device to Co-Owner Mike Kasper at Spanky’s Stone Hearth. The devices were donated from the fire department to 10 Vergas area establishments that serve food from the assisted living center to restaurants and churches.

By Robert Williams

Editor

The Candor, Dora and Hobart Township-Vergas Fire Department recently donated anti-choking devices to 10 area establishments that serve food from churches to restaurants in the Vergas area.

“We wanted to distribute them to have another option when the Heimlich Maneuver doesn’t work,” Vergas Fire Department First Captain Kevin Zitzow said.

The LifeVac anti-choking device can be used on both children (at least 22 pounds) and adults. The LifeVac can be used in any position, sitting, standing, or laying down. 

According to Zitzow, these devices were recently released at the national fire conference of the National Interagency Fire Center.

“We feel by having them in the community that there are possibilities of saving lives,” Zitzow said. “They come with both a kid’s face mask and an adult and it is meant to dislodge food from someone’s throat while unconscious.”

The device has a variety of uses and can also be used alone on one’s self in the event of a choking incident without anyone else present.

The 10 LifeVac devices were purchased with funds raised through various fundraisers and donations to the CDH-Vergas Fire Department.

“We felt that giving back to the community that gives so much to us to be appropriate,” Zitzow said.

The fire department donated the devices to Spanky’s Stone Hearth, Skål Bar and Grill, Billy’s Corner Bar and Grill, Loons Nest Restaurant, Loonies Pub and Campground, Vergas United Methodist Church, St John’s Lutheran Church, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Lakes Area Word Fellowship Church and Vergas Assisted Living

More information on the devices is available at www.lifevac.net