Choking
Choking is the blockage of the air flow into the lungs. It happens due to obstruction in the throat or trachea, blocking up the air flow. In grown ups, food mostly struck and cause choking. Little babies, most of the times eat up itsy-bitsy things which result in choking. Since choking chops off oxygen supply to brain, in this situation don’t wait for any thing just arrange first aid instantly.
In choking person clung its hands on neck, further symptoms of choking are:
1. Abrupt breathing
2. Coughing again and again with pressure
3. Difficulty or inability to speak
4. Drop in oxygen in body, nails, lips and in severe cases skin turns blue
5. Person can faint
The first aid measures recommended by Red Cross are five which are:
- Give five blows on back in-between pectoral region of shoulders.
- The second step to execute is Heimlich maneuver, means five pushes on tummy.
- Flip-flop between 5 back bumps and 5 abdominal pushes till the obstruction is displaced. Do this before calling your local emergency medical unit. If you have someone else at home or near you, let him dial the number and you do first aid to sufferer.
- Stand at person's back; enclose your hands around the chest. Angle the individual head little bit. Fold your hand to make a fist and then place it little above the belly button. Try to elevate the person by clutching the fist with other hand on abdominal area.
- Execute 5 abs pushes, if required. If the obstruction is not displaced after doing all this, try again the "five-and-five" rhythm.
However if you are lonely and choking, you will not be able to do back blows. But, even in this situation you can do abdominal thrusts to get rid of obstruction.
To execute Heimlich maneuver on yourself:
1. Put one fist little higher up your bellybutton.
2. Grip your fist by second hand and curve over a firm surface.
3. Thrust your fist in to abdominal region and then push it upward.
Removing the obstruction of a fat or pregnant lady.
- Place your hands a bit higher than start abdominal pushes at the end of sternum.
- Continue Pushing hard with rapid strokes into chest. Recur till obstruction is displaced or the individual goes insensible.
Removing obstruction of an individual:
- Put the individual on floor, placing its back on it.
- To remove an apparent obstruction, put your finger into the mouth and take out carefully the cause of obstruction.
- In case of children extra care in removal of blockage is required, as object can move deeper in the trachea.
- If obstruction remains there start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The thorax compactions applied in cardiopulmonary resuscitation could displace the target. Check mouth at repeated intervals.
Removing obstruction in infants:
- Sit on chair or sofa and carry the infant head down on your fore arm.
- Tap child softly just steadfastly 5 times on pectoral region using the palm of your hand. The combining effect of gravity and the back blows will remove obstruction.
- If above measures are not fruit full put the child face up and head lower than trunk on your fore arm. Put two fingers slightly lower than sternum and quickly compress five times.
Keep on doing it and call emergency medical help or 911, if child does not breathe and condition remains the same, start infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In case if the child is aged more than one year give only abdominal thrust.
In order to educate yourself for this kind of circumstances, get training of the Heimlich maneuver and cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a licensed first-aid grooming class.