Swallow Safely by Sayadi & Herskowitz *Book Review*

Swallow Safely
by Roya Sayadi and Joel Herskowitz
Inside/Outside Press 2010

Are you around old, young, sick, healthy, suffering or other people who could have difficulty swallowing, getting food or drink “down the wrong pipe” (aspiration into the lungs), or otherwise potentially choking or dying in front of you? Are you concerned about such situations? You should be. These conditions kill thousands of people every year because someone is not present able to diagnose and deal with the situation.

How about yourself? What if any of these events happened and you were alone? Would you simply choke to death?

These are day-to-day issues in the lives of each of us. Yet, the subject of swallowing correctly and preparing yourself to be a caregiver in such circumstances is a subject rarely addressed in lay, or, apparently, in professional terms in a manner that provides functional walking around information.

In Swallow Safely, Drs. Sayadi (Ph.D, CCC-SLP) and Herskowitz (M.D.) provide a succinct and readable explanation of the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of all of these problems. They explain how medications can cause or complicate swallowing problems. There is also an explication of observations, questions, and concerns so that you are in a position to protect loved ones, friends, colleagues, or yourself.

There are pictorial explanations of the performance of the Heimlich maneuver on other people, or doing so over a chair for yourself if alone when a choking episode occurs.

We all grapple with complicated, often wrenching, quality-of-life and end-of-life issues pertaining to loved ones. Swallowing is closely related to nutrition, choking, aspiration, and pneumonia. It is a critical element of walking-around knowledge, in which most of us are sadly deficient (me especially). I was quite amazed to read and think through the range of swallowing problems and need for coordination with, depending on the circumstances in question, speech-language pathologists, medical doctors, or other practitioners.

I heartily recommend this excellent and timely exposition of critical life-saving information and advice that will inevitably enable you to save a life, perhaps your own. Like me, you will happily keep Swallow Safely in your medicine cabinet to be consulted periodically, as with other health matters requiring at least periodic vigilance.