Richard Madeley has revealed he almost choked to death on a piece of beef during a dinner, and was saved by his sister Liz Lawrence. The TV presenter, 70, said he swallowed a piece of “very rare beef” without chewing properly during a “lively discussion” and it went “straight into the windpipe”.
Choking incident
Speaking to Dr Hilary Jones on Good Morning Britain, Madeley recalled the terrifying moment he thought his time was up. “I tried to cough it up but I had no air in the lungs to do that. I suddenly realised I was choking,” he said. “Pandemonium ensued. People came round behind me, they were hammering on my back. The minutes ticked by and it wouldn’t dislodge.”
He described how after two-and-a-half to three minutes, he began to feel his world closing in, with black dots appearing at the sides of his eyes. “I began to feel very weak and a calm sense of acceptance coming, ‘Oh, this is it, this is how I’m going to go.’”
Rescue by sister
Fortunately, his sister Liz Lawrence, who is trained in the Heimlich manoeuvre, was present and rushed in from the toilet to save him. “She did the Heimlich on me. One, two, three times and it didn’t work, it was still lodged. I felt my knees give way and I went down and as I went down, thank God, she did it again,” Madeley said.
“The combination of gravity and her doing it harder than ever before dislodged the beef, got a little bit of air in and managed to cough it up, and 10 seconds later I was back in the room, but it was touch and go. If she hadn’t known what to do, I would’ve died.” The Heimlich manoeuvre, named after thoracic surgeon Henry Judah Heimlich, involves using abdominal thrusts to stop a person from choking.
Health journey
Madeley has been open about his health journey. He was previously a heavy smoker but quit more than 20 years ago. Following the deaths of his grandfather, father and uncle from heart attacks, he is “conscious” about his health and does what he can to prevent risk. He walks 10,000 steps a day and watches what he consumes.
Describing himself as “an inveterate walker”, he said: “I'm active around the house, my kids say I'm very annoying because I never really sit down. I'm always doing stuff on my feet. I'm on my feet a lot and I walk a lot, I don't do a step count but I'm sure I do over 10,000 steps a day. We all know that walking is one of the most effective exercises you can do.”
