Saving Lives: Basic First Aid - What to Do if Someone is Choking?

Hello Steemians!!

In @HealthcaReport we want you to be a hero and save lives! So today we are going to give you some BASIC, I said BASIC, yes, BASIC information to act in a choking situation, and most important : When NOT TO ACT!

Okay, lets go do this interactive:

1- 1-First Thing, if you want to be prepared to act we really need to understand what choking means:

-CHOKING:

Mayo Clinic explain choking in a simple way :

Choking occurs when a foreign object becomes lodged in the throat or windpipe, blocking the flow of air. So we have to main objects that cause most of the blocks:

-Food and Small Objects.

Starting with this definition, we need to understand that sometimes besides an object is in the throat or windpipe, it might not be blocking the airway completely, this is called partial airway obstruction.

-PARTIAL OBSTRUCTION:

The most important thing here is, THE PERSON CAN TALK, that means that if we see someone that it seems to be choking and we ask him..Bro are you choking?

-And he Say, YES!! , we can be calm, because we are in presence of a Partial Obstruction.

Okay, so now lets see other Signs and Symptoms of this Partial obstruction:

-Breathing laboured, gasping or noisy.
-Some air escaping from the mouth.
-Patient coughing or making a ‘crowing’ noise.
-Extreme anxiety or agitation.

And now if we see a partial obstruction we just need to:

Ask the patient ‘are you choking?’ to determine whether their airway is completely blocked.

If they can answer or breath:

1-Reassure and encourage the patient
2-Stay with the patient until full recovery has occurred.
3-Encourage the patient to cough and expel the foreign body.
4-If the obstruction is not relieved – call to Emergency or an ambulance.
5-Stay calm.

Okay now I understand how can I do when the person can still breath, but what if not?

-And also cannot this person just breath by the nose?

-And the answer is NO! Lets see why:

So if we see the image, we can see that besides the nose isn't blocked, the air needs to come from the nose to the trachea to reach the lungs, and in this case we might have something (food,objects,etc) blocking the trachea.

If this happens, we are talking about Complete Obstruction, and we will see the next Signs and Symptoms:

-COMPLETE OBSTRUCTION:

-The person will be unable to effectively cough, breathe or speak, with no air movement.
-The person will be making obvious efforts to breathe with in-drawing of spaces between the ribs and above the collarbones.
-The person may be clutching the throat with both hands (the universal sign for choking).

-So now we know this person has a total airway obstruction, so lets see what we can do for it:

1- You will need to perform abdominal thrusts to the person so he or she can get out the object from the airway.

It is important to say that you will do this by applying abdominal thrusts to the person, and this is just sending the air that is inside to the outside, so with the air it can come also the object that is blocking the airway.

To perform abdominal thrusts (Heimlich maneuver) on someone else:

1-Stand behind the person. Wrap your arms around the waist. Tip the person forward slightly.
2-Make a fist with one hand. Position it slightly above the person's navel, one inch above the belly buttom, so please dont be afraid of touching the belly buttom of the person so you can go one inch up, safe is better than sorry..
3-Grasp the fist with the other hand. Press hard into the abdomen with a quick, upward thrust — as if trying to lift the person up.
4-Perform a total of 5 abdominal thrusts, if needed. If the blockage still isn't dislodged, repeat the five-and-five cycle.
5-If you're the only rescuer, perform back blows and abdominal thrusts before calling 911 or your local emergency number for help. If another person is available, have that person call for help while you perform first aid.

Thanks and God Bless You!

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Image Sources:

www.bbc.co.uk
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Heimlich+maneuver

Information Sources:

http://www.stjohn.org.nz/First-Aid/First-Aid-Library/Choking/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-choking/basics/art-20056637