Family shares awareness about device they say could have saved their son

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A Fayette County family is pushing for awareness after unexpectedly losing their 6-year-old son last month.

Danielle and Dustin Hockenberry are advocating for families, first responders, day cares and schools to take action now in hopes to save a life after their son Owen died on Aug. 22. after choking on a piece of food.

"We were all hanging out, you know? We cooked out on the grill that day, and my son came in and got a piece of food that day and ended up choking on it. I ended up starting the Heimlich on him. The neighbor even tried the Heimlich on him, and nothing was working," Danielle Hockenberry said.

She said they called 911 and first responders performed CPR but nothing helped. He was rushed to Uniontown Hospital where he later died.

"They also told us that that piece of food was so lodged in there that it ended up tearing up his airways when they pulled it out," Danielle said.

She said Owen was always smiling and laughing and made friends with everyone.

"He was a very happy child with a heart of gold, and he loved his sister," Danielle said. "He loved everybody. He was always trying to make you smile, always making sure that you're OK, that you, you know, that you're happy. He just, he loved being outside. He loved being with his friends."

As the Hockenberrys grieve, they're pushing for awareness, saying LifeVac, a choking rescue device , may have made a difference had they had one.

"It helps remove stuck objects from airways. It's almost like, like a plunger type," Danielle said. "It has, you know, just the manual hand pump and then it comes with two masks. You get a pediatric one and an adult one. I really want to get this out there, because, you know, and we didn't have it."

Danielle posted about the device on Facebook, which has been shared nearly 800 times.

"A lot of people say, "Oh, that would never happen.' But how do you know? You never know," Danielle said.

She and her family said they would like to see all first responders carrying the devices as well as having them at daycares, schools and nursing homes.

"They're designed to where they don't push air back into you, like it goes out the side, and then when you go pull it back out, it creates that good suction, and it pulls really hard. I feel like all the schools, the day cares, the nursing homes, anywhere that has an AED should have one of these, too," Danielle said. "I'm hoping to get these out there and get them used, because it might make that difference."

"The ambulance can't always get there first or the police officer or the firemen can always have some kind of delay between them all racing to get to the situation," Dustin Hockenberry said. "So, I mean, if your fire trucks have them and they beat the ambulance to the situation, maybe they could save someone else, a child or someone's -- an adult."

"Ask yourself, what if this was your child or what if this was your family member?" Danielle said. "Because you never know if it might happen to you or not. I just really would like to get it out there and get people buying them, because like I said, you might not think, 'Oh, that won't ever happen to me,' but we thought that."