Local Parents and Pediatricians Call for Re-design of Easy-to-choke-on Foods

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By David Klugh

Story Published: Mar 5, 2010 at 11:09 PM PDT

CENTRAL WASHINGTON -- There's an empty spot next to the Arriaga family in the front row of Holy Apostle's church and an empty spot in every Arriaga heart.

"He was definitely a little boy full of life always with a smile on his face," says Maria Arriaga.

4-year-old Anthony Arriaga suffocated after a piece of a hot dog lodged in his throat. Once in, it was not coming out.

"We tend to do a lot of hot dogs… and he just choked," says Arriaga.

Deputy Dominic Mutch was the first on the scene.

"I immediately grabbed a hold of him and tried for back blows to dislodge it, and then eventually moved to the Heimlich maneuver," Mutch says.

Within minutes, Anthony was gone.

Vincente Arriaga "I remember just feeling a lot of pain," Vincente Arriaga recalls. "Just watching my child lay there unconscious and not being able to do anything."

Another local couple was broadsided by the unlikely tragedy.

"It didn't really dawn on me that they weren't gonna be able to save her," says Nicole Avery.

Haley Avery was barely two when she began choking on popcorn kernels.

"I did the compressions twice and breathed in her mouth twice," says Avery. "My living room was full or paramedics."

Today, Avery and her husband have a book filled of memories, ending with the one that broke their hearts.

"I don't want it to happen to anyone else," Avery says. "No one should have to go through that. How do we live without her? And realizing you have to come up with a new normal, that your family is never gonna be the same."

These parents did nothing wrong. They fed their kids foods specifically designed and targeted at kids. We put so much emphasis on toy choking hazards, yet, according to one pediatrician, if you hired the best engineers on the planet to design the perfect plug for a child's airway, the result would be a hot dog.

"In the case of children, is actually shaped in the upper airways is shaped like a funnel," says Dr. Juan Acosta, an ER physician. "So once the piece of grape, popcorn even hot dog gets lodged in there, it's very difficult...to be able to dislodge. You can't create enough pressure to squeeze the object down."

The push to get larger warning labels on these so-called kid-friendly foods is underway. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics is calling for many foods like hot dogs to be redesigned. That is an effort that could take years, meaning your family remains vulnerable.

Until then, you don't have to go far to find a parent willing to share their story of indescribable pain. Heartache that for others really is avoidable.

"That memory is always gonna be in our head," Arriaga says. "It's never gonna be erased. But what can we do?"

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