The death of Decklan Hayward was not the first child to die unnecessarily from a choking emergency where first aid measures failed to help in time. Sadly,  Australia has a history of this, and successive State Coroners have failed to properly investigate the efficacy of current measures, and their evidence base or to explore other methods (like the LifeVac) that could have delivered a very different outcome.

Some Coroners have (evidently) relied on medical experts with little knowledge of the science, the law, or the weakness of current first aid measures in severe upper airway obstruction. Some experts have not even been familiar with the sequence of first-aid measures in Australia but their testimony has been accepted without question. 

LifeVac is compiling a list of these, with a critical review of the evidence in reaching the Coronial decisions that have allowed situations like Decklan's to occur over and over again. The information is available on our website on the link below. 

https://www.lifevac.net.au/critical-analysis-of-coronial-findings