New Care is the first care home group in the UK to install the Dechoker anti-choking device in all its care centres.
Lightweight and easy to use, Dechoker can be quickly placed over the mouth and nose in a choking emergency and uses directed suction to instantly remove whatever is blocking the airway within seconds.
Uniquely it can be used if the individual is either sitting up or lying down where conventional first aid choking procedures, which include back blows and abdominal thrusts, can prove difficult to deliver to some residents with a variety of conditions.
Proven to save lives, it is already well used in the USAand Spain but is relatively new to the UK, and New Care is one of the first to adopt the new device and provide it in all its homes.
Chief operating officer at New Care, Cath Fairhurst, comments: “The comfort and safety of our residents is of the utmost importance to us, and when we heard about Dechoker we knew that it would be the right decision to provide it in all of our homes. It is now fully operational in all three care centres and will be provided as a company standard in every new one.”
Director for Dechoker UK, Matt Oakley, adds: “Dechoker has already saved 14 lives and we are delighted that New Care took the decision to install our devices in all of their homes and to support our mission to save even more lives. Three quarters of all UK choking deaths are people aged 65 and over, and with the likelihood of a choking incident increasing dramatically with age we will undoubtedly save many more as providers choose to adopt it as a quick and very easy system to prevent deaths in a choking emergency.”
Matt has worked with New Care to train a number of New Care employees who have since gone on to educate their colleagues and teach them how to use the Dechoker device so that all carers across the group are ready to use Dechoker should the situation arise.
