choking episodes at EVERY wedding????

I hope someone could give me some insight.  My father is 57 years old and is a normally healthy male.  A couple of years ago on a cruise my father was eating steak when he had a sudden onset of what appeared to be choking.  I performed the Heimlich with no avail and his symptoms seemed to improve spontaneously.  We thought this was an isolated episode.  Now, at every wedding or public event, he will begin to eat when he belches several times then goes to the bathroom.  He has hypersalivation, gagging, difficulty breathing and sometimes regurgitation.  It is very frightening episode that resolves after about 20 minutes.  It seems to be when he has meat/chicken or salad.  He takes Nexium which is not helping.  HELP PLEASE!

[lizziecee]

Hi there - I think I may be able to throw some light on your father's choking problem, as my husband suffered from this occasionally, since he was 57 yrs (now 79 yrs).

My husband would very occasionally start to choke after a 2nd mouthful of meat. It was as if the first mouthful got stuck in his oesophagus, and the second mouthful made him choke violently and he was literally gasping for air. I am a tiny 5'2" lady, he is 6'3" and weighs 220 lbs., so there was no way I could do the Heimlich manoeuvre. The only way he could clear the food was to go the bathroom and regurgitate it. This has happened in public in restaurants, and at home. It was always meat that was the culprit.

Eventually, last year, when the problem was becoming more frequent, I suggested he see my excellent gastro (I have Crohn's) and he did an upper endoscopy to see if there was a tumour, or anything else to identify the problem. He found a narrowing of the Schatzki's ring in the oesophagus. I believe that by putting the endoscope down his esophagus, this widened this ring and now allows the food to go through unobstructed. He was also advised to chew all meat very thoroughly before swallowing.  He is also on a low fat diet. I believe the problem is hereditary, and is triggered by acid reflux (GERD).  There was no medication prescribed, and he has not had a single instance since the endoscopy.  If you google Schatzki's ring, there is a very good technical explanation of the condition.

I could be entirely wrong of course, and there could be another explanation, but as your father's symptoms are exactly the same as my husband's, thought there is a possibility this is the cause. I would respectfully suggest your father has an upper endoscopy to properly diagnose his problem.

I know how frightening it is for for the patient and family members to witness these episodes as it seems there is nothing we can do to help at the time.

Hope your father gets this worrying problem sorted out soon.
Liz.