Choking

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Choking

Treatment

If the patient is conscious and able to cough hard

  • Keep calm and encourage the patient to keep coughing.
  • Stay with the patient and closely monitor his/her condition.

If the patient is unable to cough as his/her airway is completely obstructed

  • Keep calm and perform Heimlich Manoeuvre.
  • Dial “999” for an ambulance.

 

Heimlich Manoeuvre

  • Stand securely behind the patient and encircle his/her waist with both arms.
  • Make a fist with one hand with the thumb facing towards the patient.  Grasp the fist with the other hand.
  • Place both hands on the patient's abdominal midline, i.e. slightly above the navel and well below the tip of the xiphoid process.
  • Thrust upward and inward against the patient's abdomen with appropriate force to apply pressure on his/her diaphragm.
  • Repeat the above step until the foreign body is dislodged.