2. Learning Objectives
• General Objective
The spectators must be able to identify choking and assess one.
• Specific Objectives
1. To list the signs of choking
2. To demonstrate how to evaluate a choking event
3. To demonstrate how to assess first AID actions for an adult who’s choking
4. To demonstrate how to assess first AID actions for an infant who’s choking
3. Definition
“Choking is a blockage of the upper airway by food or any object that prevents
someone from breathing”
8. Risk factors
Individuals with developmental disabilities
Decreased or absent protective airway reflexes as
occurs in cerebral palsy
Poor or underdeveloped oral motor skills that do
not permit adequate chewing or swallowing
Gastroesophogeal reflux disorder (GERD), which
may cause aspiration of refluxed stomach contents
Epileptic seizures
Inability to swallow certain fluid consistencies
and/or food textures
Medication side effects that decrease or relax
voluntary muscles, causing delayed swallowing or
suppression of the protective gag and cough
reflexes
Impaired mobility, that may leave individuals
unable to properly position themselves for
adequate swallowing
9. Risk factors
Individuals with some medical conditions
Dysphagia
Asthma
Lung disease
Emphysema
Sleep apnea
Allergic reactions that cause swelling of the throat
Dental issues (Dentures)
Contributing factors
Eating or drinking too fast
Not chewing food well enough prior to swallowing
Inattention to eating
Placing too much food in one’s mouth
Food stealing
Swallowing inedible objects (PICA)
10. Clinic
They’re:
Unable to talk (or cry)
Unable to breath (noisy
breathing)
Unable to cough (forcefully)
Wide-eyed panicked look on
face
Loss of conscious
Skin, lips, or nails turn blue or
dusky
Try to say “I’m choking!”
11. Treatment
• The scene
• The
person’s
condition
Assess Medical helpPlan
• If the person
can speak,
cough or breath:
• - Encourage
coughing
• - Stay till he
breaths
normally
Impleme
nt
13. Treatment
1
• Ask the person “Are you choking?”
• Severe choking: If the person cannot speak, cough or breath
• Mild choking: Encourage the person to cough to clear the
obstruction
2
• Stand behind or beside the person and wrap one arm across the
chest.
• Bend the person forward.
• With the heel of your other hand, give 5 firm back blows between
the shoulder blades
3
• If the object does not come out, place a fist just above the belly
button.
• Place your other hand over your fist and pull sharply in and up,
doing 5 abdominal thrusts.
• Continue the cycle of 5 back blows and 5 abdominal thrusts until
the object comes out or the person begins to breathe or cough.
17. Treatment
1
• Give 5 firm back blows with the heel of one hand between the
infant’s shoulder blades.
2
• Place two or three fingers in the center of the infant’s chest just
below the nipple line and compress the breastbone about 1½
inches.
• Give 5 chest thrusts
• Support the head and neck securely when giving back blows and
chest thrusts. Keep the head lower than the chest.
3
• Continue sets of 5 back blows and 5 chest thrusts until the:
• Object is forced out.
• Infant can cough forcefully, cry or breathe.
• Infant becomes unconscious.
19. Treatment
If these maneuvers fail:
Heimlich maneuver =
Abdominal thrust
Back blows
Airway not establish
Cricothyroidotomy
Tracheostomy
20. Treatment
1
• Quickly disinfect the skin
2
• Hold the thyroid cartilage in your non-
dominant hand to stabilise it
3
• Locate the cricothyroid recess
• Make a vertical stab incision into the
skin
• Avoid cutting from side to side to
minimise bleeding.
21. Treatment
4
• Then make a horozontal stab incision
into the muscle
5
• With retractors or a tracheostomy
dilator, dilate the hole
6
• Insert a tracheostomy tube under direct
vision and inflate the cuff
• Some must hold the tracheostomy tube
in position
• They must not let go until it has been
secured
22. Treatment
7
• Check capnography or other studies to
confirm the tube position.
8
• Secure haemostasis.
9
• Ventilate and reassess.
23. Treatment
Educate caregivers on the importance of mealtime safety
Provide quality first aid training
Make supervising all individuals at mealtime a high priority
Improve accountability by assigning point people for
mealtime monitoring
Be especially watchful at mealtime for individuals with
concerns related to eating style (e.g., eating too fast or
overstuffing food)
Document mealtime concerns in a communication log
28. The brain is extremely
sensitive to the lack of oxygen
and begins to die within four to
six minutes.
It is during this time that first
aid must take place.
Irreversible brain death occurs
in as little as 10 minutes.
Question Section
29. There could be danger when
you’re approaching your
casualty
Look for the suspicious objects
that are related to the choking
Make yourself an idea of the
choking cause
Look for a phone and call for
help
Question Section
30. We have to check the airway
Look, listen and feel the breathing
If the person is not breathing, open the
airway.
To tilt the head and open the airway
Press down on the forehead with one
hand
Lift the chin with the index and middle
fingers of the other hand
If you think the spine may be injured,
take extra care when lifting the chin
Question Section