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Comment by dx211 | Hacker News Reader

It seems like if they don't have enough pressure in their lungs to expel the bite of ham sandwich, you wouldn't necessarily be able to suck it out with this device. On the other hand, I have a hard time blowing up those skinny balloons for balloon animals, but the pump thing they sell with them does it like a champ.

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> On the other hand, I have a hard time blowing up those skinny balloons for balloon animals, but the pump thing they sell with them does it like a champ.

I think this is the real issue. Your lungs simply aren't very strong.

Even pro-athletes who we would normally associate with respiratory fitness, like runners and swimmers, have more capacity and efficiency then they do strength.

I doubt that you can completely deflate your lungs by exhaling; even if you try your hardest to exhale as deeply as you can. There would always be some air in the lungs so that the pressure difference generated by this device would almost certainly be enough to pop the blockage out of your trachea.

That's exactly right, something called Residual Volume (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_volumes#Values)

I'm not a doctor, but I imagine that using this device on someone without any air in their lungs might cause some sort of bleeding or abrasion in the lung tissue. Of course, if I'm choking I ccould care less...

...I'm terrified of choking, fwiw.

Their lungs are cheerfully cranking out carbon dioxide for the chance to do it again, so running out of residual volume or pulling nitrogen into gas has a lot of give. So you're the one with the strong negative response when people suggest hitting an exercise heart rate and recovering with solid food (root vegetables,) eh?

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