First Aid Tips: Choking

Choking may happen while a person is eating or drinking. When a person is choking, he or she will most likely cough. This is the body’s natural reaction to remove food stuck in the airway. Conventional wisdom or informal teaching tells us to slap the victim at the back or reaching the mouth with fingers effectively stops choking. Authorities, however, disagree. There is a good chance that stuck food lodges deeper into the windpipe, making it more difficult to remove. The best thing to do is to stay calm and do nothing. Coughing itself can clear the airway without any intervention. The only time you should step in for help is when the person is crying, can’t breathe, can’t speak and his or her face is turning blue.

How to Perform the Heimlich Maneuver?

• Move behind the victim and wrap your arms around the victim’s mid section. Place your fist right below the rib cage. Cover your fist with your other hand. If the victim is a child, kneel so that your hands are leveled with the victim’s body.
• Thrust inward and upward (in a hook-like motion) forcefully and quickly. Continue this until the victim coughs out the stuck food or object.

What to do when the victim becomes unconscious?

Call for emergency help.

If you are with other people, ask someone to call for help. Meanwhile, attend to the victim right away. If you are alone with the person, attend to him or her for one minute then call 911.

When calling for help, prefer using a landline phone over cellular phone if available. There is a greater chance that your call will be traced when you use a landline phone than a cellphone.

Begin CPR.

CPR should be performed by someone with proper CPR training. However, even if you haven’t had a class, you can still perform it correctly.

Assume the hands-only CPR position

With the heel of your first hand on the breastbone–area of the chest right between the nipples – and the other hand on top of the first locking it together with fingers, begins to press down hard and fast about an inch or an inch and a half and all the way up again. Do this continuously until the help arrives at the rate of 100 times per minute.

Stop giving CPR once the emergency help arrives and is ready to take over.

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