There is a medical condition called Café Coronary Syndrome. Unfortunately, a certain diagnosis of the syndrome can only be established once the victim has died and the autopsy confirms it, ruling out in other possibilities of the cause of death. The syndrome has also been called fatal food asphyxia.1
A medical journal called Emergency Medicine published the typical response to the syndrome before morbidity becomes mortality. “The established professional medical treatment would be a tracheostomy, which involves the insertion of a large-caliber hypodermic needle into the trachea to provide a temporary airway, something only a doctor can do.”2
This all changed on June 1, 1974 when a Cincinnatti, Ohio surgeon, Dr. Henry J. Heimlich, wrote an essay called Pop Goes The Café Coronary. Café Coronary Syndrome is nothing more than choking on food. In the article, Dr. Heimlich laid out a new way of dealing with someone who is choking. His method is still used today. The method simply involves thrusting inward and upward on the abdomen of choking victims.
How did he develop this method? He practiced on his four beagles. Each dog received at least 20 treatments and survived every time. Heimlich believed the procedure would work on humans as well. All I have to say is, “Those poor pups!”
Today is National Heimlich Maneuver Day. Those trained for the Heimlich Maneuver are first trained to identify a real choking victim versus someone who had something go down the wrong pipe. If the person is choking, the Heimlich can be employed. The procedure is simple to learn and is something everyone should know how to do. Since 1974, tens of thousands of lives have been saved thanks to Dr. Heimlich’s innovation.
Did you realize that we see people choking every day? In Luke 8, Jesus taught with the parable about the seed and the sower. As He gave the explanation, he said in Luke 8:14, “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.”
We share the Gospel and the seed is choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. People have too much going on in their lives to consider their eternal souls. They are much like the rich fool in Luke 12:16-20. “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: (17) And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? (18) And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. (19) And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. (20) But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”
The cares of this life also have a choking affect even on the Christians. Just look at the Sunday and Wednesday attendance, especially during the summer. How many churches suffer from “empty pew syndrome?” There’s too many other things going on in life that we just don’t have time for the things of the Lord. Those who get caught up and preoccupied will argue that they are still close with the Lord. Yet, the “proof is in the pudding!” No evident fruit is being brought forth to perfection.
Today, maybe we are choking spiritually and we need a Biblical Heimlich Maneuver performed on us. 1 John 2:15-16 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” If these worldly things have infiltrated our lives, let’s give them an inward, upward, and OUTWARD thrust, getting them from our lives so that we can breathe the clean air of Godly freedom.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)
1https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16356749/
2https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-1/heimlich-maneuver-for-choking-published
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