Choking Care for Responsive Adult or Child

First Aid for a Choking Conscious Adult or Child

Step 1. 

Determine if the person can speak or cough. If you see an object in the throat or mouth, remove it. If not, proceed to the next step.

Step 2. 

Perform an abdominal thrust (Heimlich Maneuver) repeatedly until the foreign body is expelled.

• Stand behind the victim with one leg forward between the victim’s legs. For a child, move down to the child’s level. Keep your head slightly to one side.
• Locate the person’s navel with a finger from one hand.
• Make a fist with the other hand and place the thumb side of the fist against the person’s abdomen  just above the navel.
• Grasp your fist with your other hand and thrust inward and upward into the victim’s abdomen with quick jerks. Continue abdominal thrusts until the victim expels the object or becomes unresponsive.

Step 3. 

For a responsive pregnant victim or any victim you cannot get your arms around or for who abdominal thrusts are not effective, give chest thrusts from behind the victim. Avoid squeezing the ribs with your arms.

If the person becomes unresponsive (or is found unresponsive), lower the person to the ground, expose the chest and start CPR with 30 chest compressions. Look inside the mouth each time you open the mouth to give breaths and remove any object seen.