Helping Out Someone Choking
Choking is a very common, potentially extremely serious situation. The good thing is, with the right skills and quick thinking, it is an easy fix. This is why I am going to explain to you how we teach the skill to our Lifeguards for Hire employees.
This is definitely one of the most important things we teach our lifeguards for hire. This is because it can happen anywhere, to any one of any age. Choking can happen at a restaurant, during your child's lunch break at school, even at home during a family dinner. Because of the fact that it can happen anywhere, it is great to have the skills to be able to stop it anywhere. Lifeguard for hire or not. The best part is, it is so easy to learn!
Once you approach the person that is choking, you want to stand behind them and put your strongest lag in the middle of their legs. This is so that they will have the support of your leg if they pass out. You then take one hand and put it two finger spaces above their belly button in the fist. You want the part of your fist with your thumb to be touching the person choking. Next you want to lay your other hand over the hand placed two finger places above the belly button. Once your positioning is good, you want to thurst your hands in and up in a swift, hard motion, to try to push up whatever is caught. For a regular sized adult, you will be doing this as hard as you can. For a child or a small adult, you will be putting a little less pressure. If nothing is coming out, you can adjust the pressure.
You do five of these "abdominal thrusts". When you have done five you take your strongest hand and place it dead center of their shoulder blades. You want the other arm to come around the person's stomach for support. The person will be leaning over when you administer the back blows so you want to make sure you have good grip. The black blows are the same in pressure as the abdominal thrusts in terms of pressure. The larger the person is the more pressure you will need to apply. You admisister five back blows and then replace your hands to the abdominal thrust position.
You will keep going back forth doing five abdominal thrusts to five back blows until the object comes out of the person or they become unconscious. If they become unconscious, they will fall onto your legs and your hands will catch their bosy. Lay them down to the floor as smooth as possible, making sure to support their head until it reaches the floor. Admisister CPR.
There! Now you have it from a lifeguard for hire herself!
You now know the basics of helping someone that is choking. Use your new lifeguard skills to help save someone in need, and remember, you do not truly know how to administer 100% until you take a CPR training class and get certified through Red Cross!
If you are not certified in CPR I would suggest everyone to get their certs. You can find our prices for CPR classes here. They are reasonable, and we come to you to teach you CPR.
