If someone chokes you, you need to act quickly and not panic. In most cases, you manage to cough up what’s stuck on your own, but sometimes someone else needs to step in and help — and here you have to be quick. When someone suffers from a lack of oxygen, it is a matter of minutes.
The first thing you should do is bend the person forward and hit firmly with the palm of your hand between the shoulder blades. After this you should apply abdominal pressure where you place one fist just above the navel and put the other hand on top and push inwards and upwards.
“It’s not so easy to find the navel when you’re in a hurry, so feel that it’s soft – it’s not super careful,” says emergency nurse Camilla Thurell.
You keep repeating this until the person manages to get out what is blocking the airways.
—Five back thumps and five abdominal thrusts until it comes out, Camilla shows.
If you are pregnant and have a large stomach, pressure is applied above the stomach, below the ribcage.
—If the stomach is huge, then I have to get in above the stomach as much as possible. The baby is so protected in there and is doing well, so it’s just a matter of picking it up.
So the most important thing is not to be afraid to take it with force, and this applies to adults as well as pregnant women and children, says Camilla.
—That is my most important message: take it! Because this has to come out, within a few minutes the person will be unconscious.
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