Heimlich Maneuver: First Aid Rescue for a Choking Victim
Common choking objects
Anyone can be a choking victim
A choking victim is a person whose airway has been obstructed by a foreign object, such as: a button, marble, safety pin, bottle cap, coin, hot dog, banana, chicken, or fish bone, making it impossible to breathe. In a matter of seconds a conscious individual can pass out and, without rescue intervention, could die. I know, because I was a choking victim.
Signs of Choking
1. Cannot speak, cry out or verbally communicate
2. Breathing is difficult, may sound wheezy or whistling sounds, or gasping
3. Possible gurgling or gagging noise
4. Uses the universal choking sign: clutches her own throat
5. Skin begins to turn blue for lack of oxygen-starts at the mouth and facial area
6. Unconsciousness
Famous people who have choked:
1. U.S. President George W. Bush-choked on a pretzel in 2002
2. The Queen Mother-choked on a fish bone in 1993
3. Jimmie Foxx, Major League baseball player-choked on a bone and died in 1967
4. Playwright: Tennessee Williams-choked on a bottle cap in 1983
Henry Heimlich
Henry Heimlich is the person whose name is behind the rescue mechanism of abdominal thrusts. Prior to the Heimlich maneuver people would give the choking victim a hearty blow between the shoulder blades until either the object was expelled or the person became unconscious. In many cases, this would eventually lead to death.
In 1986, both the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association formerly adopted the use of the Heimlich maneuver as the recommended rescue for choking victims over the back blows. However, Australia is one of the countries who have not adopted this based on lack of scientific evidence. There is controversy now about the avoidance of using back blows. In some camps this is the preferred way because it causes less damage to the ribcage. The American Red Cross resumed this part of rescue aid for choking victims in 2006.
Performing the Heimlich Maneuver
Click thumbnail to view full-sizeHow to Perform the Heimlich Maneuver:
A first responder on the scene of an adult choking victim needs to:
1. Assess the situation carefully. If the victim is coughing leave him alone. If the person cannot cough or speak, or if he is only making wheezing gasps, then action is required.
2. Adult victim: wrap your arms around her waist
3. Make a fist and place the thumb side of your fist against her upper abdomen above the navel, but below the ribcage.
4. Grasp your fist with your other hand and press into her upper abdomen with a quick upward thrust. Keep the movement from the hands into the abdomen, NOT squeezing the ribcage.
5. Repeat until the object is expelled.
Performing the Heimlich maneuver
Have you ever had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a choking victim?
Choking Infant
To perform the Heimlich maneuver on a choking infant:
1. Place the infant on his back and stand at his feet. Or, hold the baby on your lap facing away from you.
2. Position the middle and index fingers of BOTH hands above the navel and below the ribcage.
3. Pressing in and upward give gentle thrusts taking care not to squeeze the ribcage until the object is expelled.
4. Proceed with CPR if no recovery has occurred.
Unconscious Victim or Obese Person
If the person is unconscious or too large or pregnant to wrap the arms around them move them to the floor on their backs and straddle their hips. Then:
1. Place one hand on top of the other and place the heel of your bottom hand in the position as if they were standing: above the navel and below the ribcage.
2. Using the body for leverage move the hands in a quick upward thrust, as if the victim were standing.
3. Repeat abdominal thrusts until the object is expelled.
4. If the victim remains unconscious or has fallen into unconsciousness proceed with CPR.
Please take the poll
Have you ever experienced choking?
Heimlich maneuver on your own self
If you are alone:
1. Position the fists under the ribcage and attempt to give yourself abdominal thrusts
2. Or, lean over the back of a chair, railing or table edge and press your upper abdomen against it with a firm thrusting motion.
3. See a doctor following the incident.
Resources
My Experience as a Choking Victim:
Eating at new restaurants is something my friend and I enjoy doing ever since our ‘taste test’ experiences in California. In our rural town in North Carolina there are no restaurants to speak of; the ones in town that are not family owned diners are merely fast food joints, certainly nothing to brag about. Whenever possible we seek an opportunity to dine elsewhere. One day, while in Raleigh, it was 'The Cheesecake Factory.'
Seated in a booth near the hallway we discussed how hungry we were and how busy the place was. It didn’t hurt that our booth was also next to the waiter’s coffee nook and we caught young men and women flying by to keep the patron’s mugs filled with hot tea or coffee. I was happy the wait for our food did not take long.
My chicken dish came exactly as I had hoped for-perfect! It looked delicious sitting on a bed of pasta while a lemon and artichokes aroma wafted up to my nostrils. I could hardly wait to try it; however, the wonderful meal was suddenly thwarted with the first bite. Eager to dive into the food, my hunger overrode my common sense and I cut too large of a piece of chicken to swallow.
Initially, I didn’t realize this and it was only until I put the piece into my mouth I became aware of its size. My options at this point were to remove the piece and cut it smaller or attempt to bite into it to make it more manageable. I chose the latter, which was the second mistake I made in that particular dining experience.
Attempting to maneuver the piece to bite it without opening my mouth so large that I imitated a hungry hippo, the chicken began to slide towards the back of my throat. My third mistake: failure to stop and reevaluate the former choice, which was to delicately remove the food from my mouth. Instead, I attempted to swallow the piece of chicken that was obviously too large for my throat. Immediately I knew I was in trouble and looked frantically at my dinner companion who was busily eating his steak.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I placed my hands on my throat showing the universal sign for choking and, bug eyed, looked desperately at him.
“Are you choking for real?” he asked.
I nodded anxiously and he quickly jumped out of the booth ordering me to do the same. Just that week I had completed my annual CPR renewal which included how to rescue a choking victim. I was grateful he was also familiar with this practice and had the self-assuredness to spring into action. He calmly put his arms around my midsection and, with his fist, gave a firm upward thrust. This was the beginning of the abdominal thrusts that are recommended by the American Heart Association.
Still being fully conscious I was able to assist the process by attempting to ‘cough’ up the lodged chicken with each thrust. In addition, our position was slightly forward, almost leaning on the table. In the meantime wait staff deftly stepped around this couple in the aisle, seating other customers and standing off to the left of us at the coffee stand chit chatting, oblivious of the emergency crisis occurring only an arm's length away.
In the course of the incident a quiet peace came over me and I was in a state of heightened awareness. I knew this was a life and death situation because I could not breathe at all. I knew it would be only a matter of seconds before I might become unconscious, so time was imperative, and I knew that I was aware that I did not want my life to end from eating food. I would later remember this and think that was an odd thought to have during this event. I also thought of my children and how sad they would be if I didn’t make it.
After the second abdominal thrust I felt a slight shift and by the third attempt I coughed harder and the chicken was expelled from my mouth and flew across the table. We both sat back down and just stared at each other for what seemed like a long time.
Then I quietly said, “You saved my life.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“No, I mean you REALLY saved my life!”
“Yeah…I know.”
More silence followed as we looked at each other absorbing the gravity of the situation. Finally, I said to him, “My throat is sore and I don’t much have an appetite anymore.”
We discussed the aura that had surrounded both of us for he had experienced this same ‘alertness’ that seemed to have encapsulated us.
“I felt like we were in a bubble. I could hear everything that was going on around us, but it was as if time stood still or was in slow motion in this place.”
He concurred with my experience. “Isn’t it amazing that we were not interrupted during that whole time by the wait staff?” he asked.
Giving first aid to a choking victim must be swift, precise and, if you are successful, have a recovery period. We were in the recovery state when our waiter next arrived. I was grateful my friend did not panic or overreact and was successful; the thought of spending a long evening at a local ER was not appealing. I just wanted to get back to my own house and the realization that I had a close encounter with death was still a new and astonishing revelation.
CAUTION: Always follow up a visit to your physician’s office following a choking incident for an examination of any remainder pieces or to assess any damages, including aspirating a piece of the object into the lung, which can result in pneumonia.
Comments
This is a very important hub, and anyone not famliar with this lifesaving technique should study it carefully. I've not only used the Heimlich Maneuver (successfully) more than once, when my grandson was about seven years old he used it on himself with the back of a dining chair. He'd only recently learned about it in school. Knowing the HM can save someone's life--even your own!
Voted Up+++ and shared
Jaye
Such important information that I have to share this with my followers. Thankfully I have never been in a situation where I needed this information, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? Everyone needs to know this just in case, and I see from your poll that 40% of those people who responded to the poll have had need of this knowledge. That's quite a few. Always better to be prepared than not. You never know who will need your help and when you will be in circumstances where you can make the difference between life and death for someone, whether it's a loved one or a stranger.
Voted up, useful, pinned to my "Health" board, and shared with my followers.
This is such a lovely and interesting piece,it came handy as a revision for me about carrying out heimlich maneuver.I only knew of one form prior to this time but its great i have been able to learn several modifications of it,such as for infants,obese and pregnant people and interestingly for oneself.
Its simply a perfect article !
Hi Denise, What a fantastic hub, everyone should read and know! Your own story was great to include, you were both so lucky you knew CPR and how not to panic. Your photos are excellent to show the steps, a really well written essential first aid procedure for us all. I did the Red Cross training here in Ireland through a job I had and it was so rewarding. Many thanks, voted and will share this on!:)
I do need to catch up on my Hub reading. So sorry I haven't been able to read Hubs as much as I'd like. Yours are always at the top of my list.
I fervently hope nobody ever needs to use the Heimlich. Keep praying!
Take care, Denise.
Excellent information on how to give the Heimlich. Your directions with the pictures are so clear and helpful. I hope I never have to be on either end of that situation. And how scary for you to choke - thank goodness your friend stayed calm and knew how to help! Very useful hub - voted up!
Thanks, Denise. You, too, dear :-)
Hi, Denise. Yes, I can be a little dense --- to say the least. Now I see what you meant.
OMG ~~ poor little grandson! So good you knew what to do, though. Phew !
Sorry about the loss of your husband.
Hi Denise, I had to perform the Heimlich on my toddler. He was choking believe it or not on a tiny piece of bread. I called 911 because I couldn't get the bread out. It seemed like FOREVER but I just kept performing the Heimlich and 60 seconds before EMS was there I saw the bread and performed a finger sweep. It was one of the scariest things, even for an RN. Thanks for sharing this important article! Take care, Kelley
Denise, this is really great and useful information for sure. I am sorry you had to experience such. I know it was terrifying. Thank you for sharing this. In His Love, Faith Reaper
This is an especially good topic for your hub, as you shared your personal experience with choking. It sounds very frightening. As a nurse we learned this maneuver in nursing school, but it is so simple everyone should learn how to save a life. This is a very useful hub. Rated up!
Oh Denise, what a terrifying event. Thank goodness you had someone there to help you who was calm and knew what to do. And your presence of mind was also quite remarkable; I’m quite sure I would have panicked. Thank you for sharing this story with us, as well as very useful information on this live-saving technique. Excellent write!
Denise, What a calm, clear, controlled recounting of what must have been a frightening experience to be on the other side of the EMT interaction! In particular, I appreciate the identification of the somewhat controversial life-saving maneuver as well as its history and possible side-effects. Also, I like how you explain what it feels like to choke and how it looks to acquaintances and onlookers.
It's most user-friendly of you to involve us all in the timeliness of your article by including two pertinent polls, regarding choking and witnessing choking.
Respectfully, and with many thanks for sharing, Derdriu
Excellent life saving information. Voted up. God blessed you with the breath of life that day. Am so glad you were OK.
Thank goodness your friend knew what to do. Thanks so much for sharing your own experience so that others may benefit from it. This hub can literally be life saving and I think the pictures were very good.
Isn't it strange how we can be in a training situation playing "victim" one week and be the real "victim" of choking the next? Just goes to show that this can happen to any of us at any time.
Thanks so much for sharing this info. Voted up across the board except for funny and I'm sharing this.
Very good info here and I hope I never have to go through this experience - on either end! The photos were a big help in showing how to do the maneuver. Voted up, useful and interesting.
I don't know if you remember this story or not but when Marty was a toddler, he began choking on a banana. Mom tried to scoop it out and when he kept choking, she grabbed him and started running next door. In the process, the jiggling and/or her pressure around his gut from carrying him dislodged the banana.
By the way, I knew about Tennessee Williams choking on a bottle cap - it pays to watch Jeopardy!
this was a must read very useful Hub :)
Okay, now I do understand. I thought they were just unfeeling or something.
YVW 4 shares. Everybody should know, and having the pix makes it easier.
Yes, I would also take the broken ribs :-)
This is a great article. I have had the same experience. I was working in a nursing home when this resident got choked on a peanut butter sandwich, when i performed the Heimlich-Maneuver the food shot across the floor. It is good that you explained it, maybe saving lives..Thank you for sharing
Thanks for your response, Denise. "Door to the other side" --- that's a very accurate way of putting it. Yes, it is weird, very weird, and I hope to not stand at that door again any time soon.
". . . bent over the table and him behind me squeezing me, haha!" ~~ Indeed. That's what I was wondering. LOL!
Oh, so the wait staff just didn't notice. They must have been really busy! I thought you meant they knew and ignored you on purpose. But, yes, it does show how important it is to know the Heimlich.
Thanks again. I've posted and shared this all over. Very important info!
VOTED UP AND EVERYTHING ELSE. Even if you can't wrap your arms around the person who is choking, you can instruct someone to do it. My father was choking on a piece of meat at a picnic, and I had just taken a CPR class. I was lucky to have my brother there to help me. I know this sounds weird, but he was able to save my dad--with coaching from me. This is certainly not the way to learn CPR!
Whoah, what an experience! It's so fortunate that you had just gone through CPR training and your friend knew what to do. Great Hub, and I love your demonstrative photos!
O. M. G. !!! ('G' for "Goodness" of course.)
This made me cry. I did have a similar experience, but not quite as bad as yours --- although I had the same "slow motion" and "life review".
I don't know how many times I've made the same mistakes --- biting off more than I can chew, and then trying to chew it anyway. My dental problems don't help, either. Thanks for the great info.
Thanks be to Providence that we are here alive now. Up, awesome, useful, beautiful.
I don't think it was very nice for the wait staff to just ignore you, though. They should have been calling 911 or something. One time, a lady even interrupted Mass because something happened to her mom. She just shouted out,"Somebody Call 911! Right now!"
I love the photos, also, and they're helpful. I hope more people vote in your poll. So far, I'm the only one.
I didn't know that about Tennessee Williams. Is that how he really died? That's horrible!
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