Since founding their company 15 years ago, Colorado-based Alan Carver and his wife have sold tens of thousands of what they called “Dechokers,” a device that’s like a plunger for humans that claims to be able to remove items blocking airways and stop people from choking to death. Marketed primarily as an FDA-approved device for use on infants and the elderly, the Dechoker was sold on Amazon and on its own website. On the Dechoker website, it explicitly stated, “the FDA has helped Dechoker with our processes and we consider their input a vital piece to Dechoker's future success.”

But the FDA had not only never approved the Dechoker, it had told the Carvers to stop selling the product entirely in 2023, according to a seizure warrant for the founders’ funds. It should have been categorized as a Class III medical device, the highest risk bracket, because, as with other over-the-counter anti-choking devices, it hadn’t been checked for safety, the agency told them. That allegedly didn’t stop the Carvers, who continued to sell the Dechoker on Amazon, raking in $8.2 million in sales between 2023 and May 2025, per the warrant, which was unsealed earlier this year.

The FDA has ordered a seizure of the couple’s funds, but no criminal charges have been filed. The FDA did not respond to requests for comment. Alan Carver did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication. On his LinkedIn page, he continues to claim the Dechoker is “FDA-registered.”

The Dechoker’s website claims the device has saved at least 500 lives, but anti-choking devices like the Dechoker have been shown to be potentially more harmful than helpful. In its online guidance for all anti-choking devices, the FDA says the “safety and effectiveness of anti-choking devices that are being sold over-the-counter have not been established.”

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“The FDA is aware of reports describing problems with the use of anti-choking devices, including failure to resolve a choking incident due to lack of suction, bruising around the face, lips and mouth, and scratches in the back of the throat,” it writes.

In 2023, researchers from the University of California, Davis tested out Dechoker and another company’s suction device on fresh cadavers, attempting to remove saltines, grapes and cashews that had been placed in the throat, close to the vocal folds. The Dechoker didn’t remove any of the food items and also “resulted in gross injury to the tongue,” the researchers wrote.

None of this has stopped Amazon from hosting Dechoker-like devices that do not even claim to be FDA approved. A Forbes review of the e-commerce site uncovered four Dechoker rivals for sale last week. They each carried disclaimers on their Amazon pages that they had not received FDA approval, except they appeared to have mistakenly copied and pasted boilerplate language about being unapproved supplements, not medical devices.

After Forbes asked Amazon about the products, the company began removing them. Spokesperson Juliana Karber said medical devices sold in the store must have required FDA approval, clearance or authorization.

“We continuously monitor our store, and if we discover a product was undetected by our automated checks, we address the issue immediately and refine our controls,” Karber said. “The products in question have been removed from the store or are in the process of being removed.” The Dechoker was also removed from sale during the last year, but Amazon didn’t clarify when.

According to the FDA’s seizure warrant, Alan Carver actively sought to cover up complaints about the Dechoker’s efficacy. The FDA said in the warrant he had admitted to forging the signatures of Dechoker employees so he could close out consumer complaints in order to downplay “the seriousness and legitimacy” of the reported injuries related to the use of his device. The FDA didn’t say what those injuries were, but in 2019, it had received a complaint where it was claimed the Dechoker “caused unspecified oropharynx injuries where [the] patient ended up with pulmonary edema,” where excessive fluid builds in the lungs.

The FDA continues to recommend old-school techniques for saving people from choking, like the Heimlich maneuver. The same advice has applied for years. In one consumer complaint filed with the FDA in 2016, a girl was choking in a restaurant and the Dechoker was used in a rescue attempt. It “nearly killed her until a physician came over and performed the Heimlich maneuver.”