Specifically: I have a WAG that the Heimlich Maneuver is more effective when there is a good deal of air in the victim’s lungs at the time the airway was obstructed as opposed to there being very little or no air. But I know very little about it (other than knowing how to properly perform the maneuver).
Anybody know the SD?
It just seems like if the victim choked on a piece of food right after exhaling all the air in his/her lungs then the Heimlich wouldn’t work because there would be no air to propel the object from the throat.
There’s never a point where you have no air in your lungs - even when you have fully exhaled, there’s still quite a bit in there - hard or impossible to expel by trying to exhale more deeply, but possible to be squeezed out via the Heimlich Manoeuvre.
If the victim choked on food with fairly full lungs, he/she would probably be able to expel the blockage by coughing, so in a way, the exhaled state is the normal state of affairs when the Heimlich Manoeuvre is performed - being less often necessary in other cases.
In normal breathing, people don’t completely exhale. You always have a bit in reserve.
Try it. Hold your breath at the bottom of your natural breathing cycle. Then make a conscious effort to exhale further. You will find that you still have a bit of air in there.
Thanks for the responses. I think I knew that all air is never completely exhaled from the lungs, I was just supposing that the amount of air in the lungs may make a difference (at least theoretically since this would be impossible to measure) in the success of the manuever with a greater volume of air being more desirable then a lesser volume (I’m guessing).
Part of the problem is that choking by design really only happens upon inhalation of a foreign body that blocks the airway, thus when a minimal amount of air is present. If you were exhaling anything that big would have a much harder time getting lodged in the trachea. The reflex is to try an inhale to draw in air which only pulls in the blockage more. If you can avoid panicing, you can pop out the object yourself by forcing an exhalation of the small amount of air still in your lungs.
Problem is, when you aren’t able to breathe, objective thinking tends to go out the window.