Brentwood Fire Department purchases 30 LifeVac units

The Brentwood Fire Department has become the second on Long Island to purchase an anti-choking device manufactured by a Massapequa inventor.

The 200-member Brentwood department purchased 30 of the LifeVac units earlier this month and they'll be placed into service in vehicles in the next week or so, said the district's fire marshal, Robert Kuehn. "We're in the process of training personnel in their use," he said.

LifeVac is a nonpowered portable suction apparatus to resuscitate a choking victim when standard procedures such as abdominal thrusts or the Heimlich maneuver are ineffective. A valve prevents the device from pushing food or other objects further into the victim's throat.

Jericho's fire department earlier purchased 21 of the devices, which were invented by Arthur Lih, a former airfreight company owner who sold his business at Kennedy Airport in 2012 and designed LifeVac in his garage.

The devices went on sale in August of last year. They're manufactured in Brentwood and retail for $69.

One police department so far has purchased the device, that of Sarasota, Florida, which bought 100 units in March.