Richard Madeley has revealed he came "very, very close to dying" after choking on a piece of meat during a family meal. The 70-year-old broadcaster opened up about the terrifying ordeal on Tuesday's edition of ITV's Good Morning Britain.
The Choking Incident
Madeley explained that he was talking animatedly and didn't chew properly, causing the food to become lodged in his windpipe. "You can't make a sound because you can't get air up through the larynx. You can't breathe in. You can't breathe out...I tried to cough it up, but I had no air on the lungs to do that. I suddenly realised that I was properly choking," he recalled.
Despite efforts to dislodge the meat by standing up and trying to knock it loose, he was unsuccessful. His brother-in-law reportedly said, "My God he's gone blue." People around him hammered on his back, but the minutes ticked by and the food wouldn't budge.
A Sense of Acceptance
After about two and a half to three minutes, Madeley said he began to feel his world closing in, with black dots appearing on either side like squadrons of flies. "A kind of a sense of acceptance came over me. I thought, this is it. This is how I'm going to go," he said.
His sister, a former teacher trained in the Heimlich maneuver, came running in from the toilet and performed the technique three times without success. Madeley confessed he could no longer stand up, and as his knees gave way, she tried again. The combination of gravity and her harder effort dislodged the meat, allowing him to cough it up.
Learning the Heimlich
"It was touch and go. I would have died. No question," he said. Madeley shared his experience as the show featured a segment on the dangers of choking, encouraging people to learn the Heimlich maneuver to help in emergencies.
