I'd say it was pretty common for folks not to pass the barium swallowing test at first -- I had my first one a couple of weeks ago and passed it except for a lack of cough response when small errant stuf got down as far as my vocal cords -- All of the staff were really enthused that I had done well and the swallowing therapist told me that I was the first success story in a while and they had all been getting disappointed -- I had cheered them up!

While I was still in hospital and had my trach tube open, they had also tried a swallow test by having me eat a variety of textured stuf with blue dye in it -- Then they had a respiration tech induce some coughing (light spray of a saline solution into the open trach) and blue dye started showing up, so I failed that one.