After lunch a few friends and I were joking around in the training room, and one of the guys told a really funny joke. One of the other guys started laughing, which turned to coughing, which turned to red-faced choking. I jumped up from my seat and ran towards him, everyone else was just kind of watching and saying “Dude, are you ok?” I quickly asked “Are you choking, do you need the Heimlich?” He pointed to his back in a way that said “Do it fucking now!!” I bumped past the guy standing next to him who was doing the “Dude, are you ok” thing, and started giving him the Heimlich maneuver. Yes, I’ve taken Red Cross training, so I wasn’t just going through the motions. After about three compressions (?), he threw up a little, and then began breathing again. He then threw up a tiny bit more, and looked up at us. He looked like he had just seen a ghost. He thanked me, and began trying to normalize his breathing and regain his composure. He got some water, and all was back to normal.
Seems he got some Mountain Dew in his windpipe while he was laughing, and it was too much for him to expel like one otherwise could. Everyone was kind of shocked for a few minutes. One of the guys said “You almost died!” The guy who was choking said he was “a nut hair away from blacking out”. He was already seeing stars when I asked him if he was actually choking.
My supervisor sent an IM to his boss saying something like “Guess what? One of our agents saved another agents life”. Needless to say, his boss was intrigued. He later half-jokingly asked if there were a medal they could give me. I’d like to think that if I wasn’t there, someone else would have stepped up and done what I did, like maybe the volunteer firefighter/EMT who didn’t even get out of his chair. I think I just did what was required, and it wasn’t a really big deal. But, as the guy who was choking pointed out, someone passing out due to an obstructed airway is kind of a big deal, it’s certainly never a trivial issue.
So, I felt pretty good about having helped, but I’m much more relieved that the guy didn’t choke to death. Ironically, the EMT was choking on a piece of hard candy a few weeks ago in a similar situation, however, by the time I asked him if he needed the Heimlich he was already coughing up the candy. Sometimes we’re too funny for our own good I guess. People keep choking on stuff!
Rock On! How about a virtual medal? For exceptional intelligence and quick-thinking in light of another’s inability to laugh and breathe at the same time, I award dnooman the medal of awesomeness: ( @ )
But this is a chance for me to fight some ignorance of my own. I thought the purpose of the Heimlich was to force an solid obstruction clear of the airway. I’m having a hard time understanding how a swallowed liquid could be that obstruction. Can someone walk me through it?
I monitor a Nutrition class at a community college. I should have paid more attention last week when the instructor was talking about digestion, and the challenges to swallowing. A lot of things have to happen in the right sequence to prevent food and liquid from going to the wrong place, like the lungs.
Maybe a medical person will come along and explain it. I googled around a bit but mostly found stuff related to how diseases and strokes affect swallowing.
It sure had me confused too. I didn’t know what he was choking on until after the fact. I’m willing to entertain the notion that the Heimlich didn’t function in the same way as it would with a solid object, but the compression might have solved his breathing issue as a sort of side effect. I don’t think that vomiting is usual in such a case either, but that’s what happened. I’d also be interested to hear from someone who might provide some insight as to what could have been going on in the guy’s stomach/lungs/windpipe/esophagus given the circumstances. I expected to see some sort of chunk of food to come flying out, but it turned out to be puke. That may have been some odd side effect as well.
My father gave me the Heimlich once, in a restaurant. I had taken a sip of beer after swallowing a piece of crab and the beer just sat there in my esophagus. The crab had not gone down properly and was blocking the beer’s path. I don’t know if the guy you saved had anything other than the Dew though.
Yep. “Abdominal thrusts” is now the correct term. Also, it appears that the Red Cross has reverted to previous guidelines that recommend back slaps prior to administering “abdominal thrusts”. When I had my training they were still recommending the Heimlich as the only treatment for choking. Learn something new everyday I guess.
Wow, I had no idea it had been invented so recently, or that the fellow was still alive! Cripes. I thought it was one of those things that had been invented ages ago (I think I envisioned the 19th century, more or less).
I nearly choked once. I got up too hastily to press the buzzer that opened the doo rof my apartmentbuilding below, to let in a mechanic that came in to fix something. As I pressed the buzzer, I choked. By the time the mechanic had hauled up his bag and himself up three flights of stairs, I was on the landing, red in the face, feeling like my eyes bulged, wheezing horribly and gasping for air and pointing feebly at my throat. The mechanic dropped his bag, ran up the last steps and immediately started the Heimlich. After the fourth time, the hard candy I had choked on flew out. I’ll stay grateful to that man my whole life, although it is hard to face that I might have died in such a stupid way.
My rasping wheezing noises had attracted some of the students on the lower floors to come out and look at me making the noises. They were also giving me the “Hey, are you ok” -look. I vaguely remember feeling so frustrated and hating them for just standing there looking at me like I was crazy and NOT HELPING!
I have done it twice. Nothing I have ever done in my life has given me more satisfaction. Good for you. Get yourself a carton of ice cream and eat the whole thing. You deserve it.
Sufficent force to expel an object lodged in the throat will also be more than enough to force some stomach contents into the esophagus.
Laryngospasm would be my first (ex EMT) guess as well, abdominal thrusts would be ineffective in clearing aspirated fluids as they do not have any real surface area or structural integrity to push against. If you had given him a minute it probably would have cleared on its own or he would have passed out and the spasm would relax and he would resume breathing, probably hacking like crazy from a small amount of aspiraed mountain dew. Scary, but minimally life threatening.
I’d still say you made the right decision to try unless you knew for a fact he was not eating anything solid…
