Foreign Body Airway Obstruction is
commonly known as choking. In adults, usually occur during eating.
Poorly chewed meat is the most frequent cause of choking in
grown-ups, but variety of food or foreign body can impede the airway.
Choking victims with only partial obstruction will be responsive and
will cough forcefully. These victims do not require immediate actions
from healthcare providers, but be prepared to act if the obstruction
becomes severe or complete.
Please keep in mind that you do not need to act if the victim can
forcefully cough and speak because coughing is the best way to remove
the obstruction.
Causes of Foreign Body Airway Obstruction and Prevention
The commonly causes of chocking are swallowing large poorly chewed
chunk of food, eating after drinking alcoholic beverages and talking,
crying, laughing or playing while food or foreign object is inside
the mouth.
To prevent from having choking the following should have done.
- Masticate food into small pieces and chew it slowly and
thoroughly, especially if you are wearing dentures.
- Avoid excessive intake of alcohol, particularly while or
before eating.
- Avoid talking, crying, laughing or playing while eating,
chewing and swallowing.
Signs of Choking
- Universal sign of choking is hands clutching on the throat
- Inability to speak
- Weak, ineffective or silent coughs
- High pitch sounds while inhaling
- Increased difficulty in breathing, and
- Blue lips and skin.
First Aid for Foreign Body Airway Obstruction
Use the abdominal thrust or Heimlich maneuver to relieve foreign
body obstruction. Clutching the throat with one or both hands is
called the universal sigh of choking.
Sequence For Relief Foreign Body Airway Obstruction in the
Conscious Victim
- Stand behind the victim
- Make a fist with one hand, placing the thumb side of the fist
against the victim's abdomen, in the midline slightly above the
umbilicus and well below the xiphoid process.
- Grasp your fist with your other hand.
- Deliver quick upward thrust into the victim's abdomen.
- Deliver until the object is expelled or the victims becomes unconscious.
