Choking
Conscious Choking
- Ask, “Are you choking?
- If a person is unable to cough, breath or speak, activate EMS
Adult and Child
- Stand behind the victim with one foot in-between the victims feet and your other foot behind you.
- Place the flat side of your fist just above the patients belly button. Grab the back of your fist with your other hand.
- Administer abdominal thrusts, pulling inward and upward, until the object comes out or the patient becomes unconscious.
Infant
- Support the infant’s face and place body on your forearm.
- Keep the infant’s head lower than the feet.
- Administer 5 back blows between the shoulder blades with the palm of your hand.
- Support the infant’s head. Turn the baby over onto your other forearm. Give 5 chest thrusts.
- Continue back blows and chest thrusts until object comes out or infant becomes unconscious.
Special Circumstances:
- If the patient is pregnant or too large to reach around, give chest thrusts instead.
- If you are giving someone abdominal thrusts and the person goes unconscious, lower the patient safely to the ground.
- Activate EMS, send someone to call 911
Unconscious Choking
- Give 30 chest compressions
- Open the airway and check the mouth for a foreign body. If something is seen sweep it out with a finger. Use the pinky finger for an infant.
- Attempt rescue breaths. If breaths do not make the chest rise, reposition head and reattempt rescue breaths.
- Give 30 more chest compressions
- Open the airway again and check the mouth for a foreign body. If something is seen sweep it out with a finger. Use the pinky finger for an infant.
- Give 2 more breaths.
- If breaths do not make the chest rise, reposition head and reattempt rescue breaths. Continue compressions, foreign body check, breathing attempts until air goes in and chest rises.
- If victim is still unresponsive and not breathing normally, continue CPR with cycles of 30 compressions to 2 breaths.
