Choking: First Aid

By Matt Unangst, 04 Feb 17:22

If you are choking, it means that you are not getting the oxygen you need to supply your brain. Cutting off oxygen to the brain can quickly cause severe brain damage or even death, so administer first aid immediately.

To show that you are choking, hold both hands around your throat. This will let everyone know that you need first aid, even if you are in a place where no English is spoken. Unfortunately, not everyone knows or uses the clutched hands symbol, so you may have to look for other signs to tell if someone is choking. Regular indications of choking include:
• an inability to speak
• an inability to forcefully cough
• difficult or noisy breathing
• a blue or dusky shade coming to the skin, lips, and nails
• a loss of consciousness

The Red Cross recommends the “Five and Five” method of administering first aid for choking. Begin by delivering five blows to the person’s shoulder blades using the heel of your hand. Follow this by using the Heimlich maneuver five times. Alternate between these two techniques until the person is no longer choking.

Although you almost certainly know something about the Heimlich maneuver, you may not know how to perform it. Begin by standing behind the choking person and wrapping your arms around his/her waist. Make sure that the person is leaned forward slightly before beginning the thrusts. Form one of your hands into a fist and place it just above the navel. Use your other hand to grasp the fist and thrust upward quickly, as if you are trying to lift the person.

If you are alone and choking, you will have to perform first aid on yourself. Although you may not be able to deliver the back blows, you can perform the Heimlich maneuver on yourself. Make your hand into a fist and place it where you would in performing the maneuver on someone else. Then lean over a hard surface in order to give yourself leverage to thrust inward and upward.

With a pregnant woman or obese person, you will have to place your hands higher, at the base of the sternum, just above where the lowest ribs meet. Perform the rest of the maneuver normally.

If someone has already become unconscious from choking, you will have to take different measures to clear the airway. Lay the person on his/her back on the floor. Look inside the mouth. If you can see something that is blocking the airway in the throat, reach into the mouth with a finger and clear the blockage out of the way. Be careful that you don’t push the item farther into the airway, however. This can easily happen with small children.

Begin CPR if you cannot remove the object or if the person does not respond after you clear the blockage. The chest compressions of CPR may dislodge the object from the throat. Check the mouth every so often to see if the blockage is now reachable.

Infants require different choking first aid from adults. Sit down and rest your forearm on your thigh. Hold the infant facedown on your forearm. This allows you to use gravity to aid you in removing the blockage in the infant’s airway. Thump the infant five times on the middle of the back. Be gentle, but firm in your thumping. If this does not remove the blockage, flip the infant over, still holding it on your forearm. Keep the infant’s head lower than its torso. Place two fingers on the sternum and give five quick chest compressions. Alternate between the back thumps and chest compressions if the infant does not resume breathing. Call 911. If the airway is opened, but the infant does not resume breathing, begin infant CPR.

When performing choking first aid on a child over one year of age, use only abdominal thrusts in lieu of infant choking first aid.

If you are the only person available to give aid, perform anti-choking measures prior to calling 911. If someone else is around, have that person call 911 while you perform first aid.

Prepare yourself for any choking problems by taking a certified first aid course, which will teach you the Heimlich maneuver and CPR.

Tags: choking, first aid, heimlich maneuver, cpr, infant