One Sunday night in the middle of hosting a dinner, I received a frantic call from a patient’s spouse. 

His wife was in strife, from swallowing a fish bone that had been hiding in her sashimi. What should they do?

I immediately had a flashback to my one experience of a choking presentation. It was a particularly non-instructive case, but very memorable as it involved a toddler who happened to be my daughter. 

At the time I was studying medicine. The episode had occurred following a week of fearful premonitions in which I had felt more and more uncomfortable about dropping my daughter off to family day care.