TOKYO - An 80-year-old Japanese man choking on "devil‘s tongue" was saved by a quick-thinking emergency medical worker and a relative who dislodged the stuck food with a vacuum cleaner, fire officials said. The pensioner living in suburban Osaka was eating sukiyaki on Saturday night with his family when the chewy food got lodged in his throat, they said. Devil‘s tongue, a grey, spongy paste made from arum root, is often used in Japanese stews and hot pots. The man fell unconscious and the emergency rescue dispatcher, who responded to a call from the family, advised them at first of other ways of saving him. When they failed, the dispatcher instructed the man‘s 25-year-old granddaughter on the proper way to insert the vacuum cleaner tube into the choking man‘s mouth. The granddaughter then flipped the switch on the vacuum cleaner, and out came the devil‘s tongue, a local fire official said. "The use of the vacuum cleaner was the absolute last resort," the fire official said. The man regained consciousness by the time the ambulance arrived and was expected to make a complete recovery, he said.