Passion Kuala Lumpur

Chris Tomlin live in Malaysia

Save a life!

If you’ve read today’s paper, very likely you’ve come across this article (Boy chokes to death after eating fried chicken) that shocks everyone. No one would have thought a simple act of eating fried chicken would have claimed the life of a little boy.

Life’s lost.

Everyone’s grieved.

Since I’ve been recently trained in CPR & First Aid training, I thought I should share this with you guys. I hope you don’t have to apply this, but if you happen to be in the scene, you can save a LIFE!

Okay, there are two types of choking patient. The first scenario, the patient is choked but the person is still able to breathe; the air passage is not completely blocked, only partial block. The patient could have probably swallowed fish bone or small chicken bones that blocked half of the air passage. For this scenario, simply bring the person to the hospital for treatment.

In the past, we always advice the patient to swallow rice or other solids to push the object (food, toy, etc) down, but the latest practice and guidelines shows that this is not a recommended practice anymore. Eating rice or other solids may or MAY NOT push the object down; and if it does not push the object down, the rice may get clogged together with the other objects; hence blocking the entire air passage. This is totally undesirable!!! So, just bring the person to hospital.

The second scenario is when the person’s air passage is completely blocked by an object (ex, big bones) and the person CANNOT breathe at all. Hence, no oxygen goes into the heart. This scenario is most severe and if the person is not treated immediately, the result is as severe as death.

Now, how do you know if the person partially choked or fully choked? Simply by asking the person “Sir/Madam/Boy/Girl, are you choked?”. If he/she able to answer you, this person is only partially choked. But if the person struggles to answer you, with two hands clinching to his/her throat; this person is completely choked. As the air passage is blocked, so does it block the voice from coming out too.

Here’s a simple way we can help completely choked person. This technique is called Heimlich maneuver.

To perform the Heimlich maneuver, the following steps should quickly be taken:

• Stand behind the person who is choking.
• Place your arms around their waist and get them to bend forward at the waist.
• Clench one hand into a fist and place it over the person's belly button, or navel.
• Place the opposite hand on top of the first.
• Thrust both hands at the same time backward into the stomach with a hard, upward movement. In those who are extremely obese or pregnant, the hands should be centered over the person's chest and chest thrusts should be given instead of stomach thrusts.
• Repeat the thrusting movements every few seconds until the object in the person's windpipe is coughed up and expelled from their mouth. The Heimlich maneuver should also be stopped if the person becomes unconscious.

Picture speaks a thousand words.

Note: if it happens to children, simply go on your knees to put yourself at same level with the patient.

Now, if the person is alone and no one can help, you can use chair of tables to assist you.

Choking claims the lives of thousands every year. While we pray it doesn’t happen to anyone we love, knowing this skills certainly helps us to know some survival skills for us to help someone. You never know, you might save someone’s life.

..david..

Boy chokes to death after eating fried chicken

GEORGE TOWN: A one-year-old boy is believed to have died after choking on a piece of fried chicken at his house in Weld Quay here.

Goh Ai Heng died on the way to the Penang Hospital at about 7pm on Saturday.

His grandmother, who declined to be named, said she had earlier fed Goh a piece of chicken wing before his mother took him for a walk.

The mother, who also did not want to be named, said she had no idea that her son was choking.

“When he screamed and put up a struggle, I thought he was suffering from a fit.

“When I found out (he was choking), I patted him on the back and tried to take out the meat but to no avail. I then called an ambulance but it was too late,” she said at the hospital mortuary.

George Town OCPD Asst Comm Azam Abd Hamid said the meat was found lodged in the boy’s throat.

The case had been classified as sudden death.