Choking: if partial or complete blockage of the windpipe take that remedy.

What is chocking?

• Choking is partial or complete blockage of the windpipe. It is also known as foreign body airway obstruction, it is a life-threatening medical emergency, occurred by the blockage of air passage into the lungs secondary to the inhalation or ingestion of food or another object. 

• Blockage of the windpipe, Choking is an airway obstruction, which includes any blockage of the air-conducting passages, blockage due to tumors, swelling of the tissues, and compression of the larynx or trachea in strangulation.

• Partial choking:

  • If the person appears to be choking but is coughing continuously.
  • Encourage him or her to continue coughing to expel item,
  • Avoid any chest /abdominal thrust or back blows,

  
  

  complete choking:

  • Ask the person if he or she is choking, he or she unable to speak, reassure the person that you know how to help him or her,
  • stand behind the person and tell him or her to spread their feet slightly apart, and use your foot to tap the inside of their feet to help them spread their feet apart,
  • Place your foot in between the person's feet, make a first with one hand place it below the bottom of the chest bone above the navel. Make sure your thumb is pressed against the person's body.
  • Grasp the fist tightly with the other hand.put your clenched fist and hand firmly inward and upward until the item is expelled or the victim becomes unresponsive. Continue this until the item is expelled from the mouth or the victim becomes unresponsive.
  • If a person suffers from choking lying down, make him sit a chair, and perform abdominal thrust. Observe for speaking or coughing as a sign that the item has been expelled.

  
  

  Pregnant and overweight victim:

  Do chest thrust by placing the first just below the nipples and pulling inward and upward.

  
  

  Child choking:

  For the children, 1-8 years old

  reassure the victim that you know how to help him or her spread victim feet slightly apart, place your leg in between the victim's feet, make a fist with one hand and place it below the bottom of the chest bone and above the navel. Make sure your thumb is pressed against the victim's body.grasp the fist tightly with the other hand. Pull your clenched fist and hand firmly inward and upward until the item is expelled or the victim becomes unresponsive.
  
  
  

  For the children under 1-year-old

  Sit or kneel down, keeping the infant in your lap .open the infant's clothes to expose the chest, position the infant with the face down on your arm so that the infants is lower than the chest, stabilize the infant by supporting the infant's jaw with your hand, carefully not block the nose or mouth or press on the throat, lock the infant's leg into the arm, locate the point just between the shoulder blades in the back, deliver 5 forceful back slaps just between the shoulder blades using the heel of your free hand.

  After delivering the back slaps, place your free hand on the infant's head with your arm resting along the infant's back so that the infant is between to.

Causes of choking:

• diversion food into the windpipe,
• Unintentional swallowing of small objects e.g - toy, coins, balloons, marbles, broken teeth, dentures, etc.
• Children under the age of three are especially at risk of choking because they put objects in their mouth,
• Adult, choking often involves food blocking the airway.

Signs and symptoms of choking:

The victim shows the following  sign,

• unable to speak, breathe or cough,
• sudden difficulty breathing after taking food, liquid, food item,
• the face becomes blue (illustration).
• Breath noisily.
• The person begins clutching of the throat or mouth or attempting to induce vomiting by putting fingers down the throat,
• unresponsive,
• continuously coughing after taking something in the mouth.

Prevention of the choking:

Choking is caused by mechanical obstruction of the airway that prevents normal breathing. This obstruction can be partial allowing air passage into the lungs or complete no air passage into the lungs. The disruption of normal breathing by choking deprives oxygen delivery to the body, resulting in asphyxia.

Stop choking by,

• Avoid speaking and eating at the same time,
• Avoid eating and drinking while lying down,
• Avoid giving young children small food such as - nuts, seeds, marbles, etc,
• Keep small object outreach of young children,
• Do not put anything in the mouth of an unconscious person.

• The person may become unconscious if breathing is not restored,

• The action was taken before advanced help arrives:

  First aid, basic treatment of choking includes a number of non-invasive techniques to help remove the foreign body, from the airway. The most modern protocols, recommend several stages, designed to apply increasingly more pressure. 

  • For the conscious choking victim, most protocols recommend encouraging the victim to cough, 
  • Followed by hardback slaps and if none of these things work; abdominal thrusts or chest thrusts. 
  • Once the choking victims lose consciousness, initiating CPR is recommended.

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