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First Aid
Choking adult
In this video, you will learn to administer first aid to a person over the age of one who is choking.
There are three possible scenarios:
1 - The victim is still breathing
I/Scenario 1: the casualty is breathing, but with difficulty:
1 – Take no action
- Encourage the person to cough and don’t do anything else!
Coughing is the most effective way of dislodging an object.
Doing anything else could worsen the situation.
Scenario 2 – Victim not breathing but conscious
II/ Scenario 2: the casualty is not breathing, but is still conscious:
Support their upper body with one hand and lean them forward.
1 – Five blows to the back
Give them up to 5 sharp back blows between their shoulder blades with the heel of your hand.
2 - Five abdominal thrusts
If the back blows don’t work, alternate with a series of 5 abdominal thrusts:
Place your hand clenched in a fist in the middle of their abdomen just below the sternum in the hollow of their stomach
place your other hand over it.
Bend the casualty forward.
Pull sharply inwards and upwards.
Alternate 5 back blows with 5 abdominal thrusts until the casualty is breathes normally.
3 – Victim unconscious and no longer breathing
III/ Scenario 3: none of these procedures has worked and the casualty loses consciousness:
1 – Alert emergency services
2 - Begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Call or get someone to call the emergency services and start cardiopulmonary resuscitation, alternating 30 chest compressions with two rescue breaths.
If you don’t know how to give mouth-to-mouth breathing, do chest compressions only, at a rate of two per second.
Continue CPR until medical help arrives or the casualty starts breathing normally.
If the choking person is obese or pregnant and you are unable to grasp your hands around them to perform abdominal thrusts, you can alternate back blows with chest thrusts.
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