Heimlich manoeuvre
Aviva Ziegler: Almost everyone you speak to about a choking treatment will say ‘use the Heimlich manoeuvre’ and on any street, in any country you’ll probably get the same answer. But you might be shocked to learn that the Heimlich manoeuvre appears to have never been accepted practice in Australia. We are one of the only countries in the world where it’s not officially on the books. This is a typical Australian first aid training course held by the St John Ambulance.
Trainer: The learning outcomes for this session is we should be able to firstly identify a person who is choking, if somebody is gagging with something partially obstructed in the upper airway we should ask the person to relax and encourage them to cough. Our research has been proven on a conscious casualty a good cough is generally better than anything else. Now if the good cough is not effective we then have to hit that person, we give them what we call back slaps, he’s leaning forward, in the centre of the shoulder blades in an upwards direction I would give him five nice solid slaps. If that is unsuccessful we should place a hand in the centre of the back on the sternum and we just press down sharply five chest thrusts and if that is unsuccessful we alternate between the two.
Henry Heimlich: Oh well that is ridiculous. I am so amazed to hear that. Back slaps were used for decades back going into the 1960s and every single scientific study had shown that back slaps cause a choking object that is in the airway to go deeper and tighter into the airway and cause death. I am astounded that the manoeuvre is not used for choking.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2010/2768800.htm
2 years ago