You are arguably correct in what you say. But a jaw thrust is very rarely performed correctly by those who have basic first aid training and protecting c-spine is admirable but pointless if the injured does not have a secure airway. On the balance of all possibilities the correct thing was to act within the scope of knowledge and if that was the recovery position so be it, the best course of action was taken. If on the other hand you had a qualified Paramedic or ED doctor (not a bog standard GP) with appropriate equipment in the vicinity then let them worry about neurological damage or shock while securing the airway. 'Swallowing his tongue' is misleading as it does cause people to think the thing to do is stick fingers etc in to a gob to draw the tongue back, if the injured spews as a resut then we are really in the sh*t, correct terminology should be used and encouraged. I am properly surprised that some people are looking for a scapegoat for what was an accident, CityRebel's foul analysis was amusing this is not now that a blame game was attempted (not by CityRebel mind).