Choking

Would you know what to do if someone was choking? I'm sure once everyone has choked on something once in their life whether it is on water, food or toys. I used to never chew my food and ended up choking on a number of different types of food. But would you know what to do if you saw someone choking?

Here is a video, It is sad, But it puts in perspective on how important choking really is.

Well what do you in a situation where you have found someone choking?

The first thing you need to do is reassure them, act calm and ask them to try and cough. Sometimes if you ask someone to cough the item they are choking on might go away. But in the case it doesn't place your arm across their chest supporting them, and with your other hand with your palm give a good hard hit in the middle of the shoulder blades. Repeat these another 4 times so you have given a total of 5 back slaps, MAKE SURE you check after every hit to see if the item has come out.

If this doesn't work then it is time to do the abdominal thrust. When you have got to this stage people start to worry, you need to make sure you keep calm and still encourage your casualty to keep coughing. With the abdominal thrusts you want to wrap both of your hands around the body making a fist with one and wrapping the second hand around it you need your fits just under the sternum (The chest bone). Then with your fist drive in and upwards, again repeat this for a total of 5 times, checking after each one to see if it has dislodged.

If the item is still lodged in the throat you need to repeat the 5 back slaps and 5 abdominal thrusts for a total of 3 times. If it hasn't come out after for have done it 3 times over call 999 or 112 and ask for an ambulance.

If you notice that your casualty is going blue around the lips, greyish in colour and stops breathing, this is where you need to place him or he on the floor, call 999 or 112 and start CPR.