Sou rce: http://www.heimlichinstitute.com 10/11/2008
How to Do the Heimlich Maneuver
The Heimlich Maneuver® for CHOKING ADULTS
A choking victim can't speak or breathe and needs your help immediately. Follow these
steps to help a choking victim:
1.
2.
3.
4.
From behind, wrap your arms around the victim's waist.
Make a fist and place the thumb side of your fist against the victim's upper
abdomen, below the rib cage and above the navel.
Grasp your fist with your other hand and press into their upper abdomen with a
quick upward thrust. Do not squeeze the ribcage; confine the force of the thrust
to your hands.
Repeat until object is expelled.
UNCONSCIOUS VICTIM, OR WHEN RESCUER CAN'T REACH AROUND VICTIM:
Place the victim on back. Facing the victim, kneel astride the victim's hips. With one of
your hands on top of the other, place the heel of your bottom hand on the upper
abdomen below the rib cage and above the navel. Use your body weight to press into
the victim's upper abdomen with a quick upward thrust. Repeat until object is expelled.
If the Victim has not recovered, proceed with CPR.
The Victim should see a physician immediately after rescue.
Don't slap the victim's back. (This could make matters worse.)
The Heimlich Maneuver® for CHOKING INFANTS
A choking victim can't speak or breathe and needs your help
immediately.
Follow these steps to help a choking infant:
Lay the child down, face up, on a firm surface and kneel or stand at
the victim's feet, or hold infant on your lap facing away from you.
Place the middle and index fingers of both your hands below his rib
cage and above his navel. Press into the victim's upper abdomen with
a quick upward thrust; do not squeeze the rib cage. Be very gentle.
Repeat until object is expelled.
If the Victim has not recovered, proceed with CPR. The Victim should
see a physician immediately after rescue.
Don't slap the victim's back. (This could make matters worse).
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The Heimlich Maneuver® for CHOKING (ONESELF)
When you choke, you can't speak or breathe and you need help immediately. Follow
these steps to save yourself from choking:
1.
2.
3.
Make a fist and place the thumb side of your fist against your upper abdomen,
below the ribcage and above the navel.
Grasp your fist with your other hand and press into your upper abdomen with a
quick upward thrust.
Repeat until object is expelled.
Alternatively, you can lean over a fixed horizontal object (table edge, chair, railing) and
press your upper abdomen against the edge to produce a quick upward thrust. Repeat
until object is expelled.
See a physician immediately after rescue.
The Heimlich Maneuver® for ASTHMA
Perform the Heimlich Maneuver on a person with an acute asthma attack who hasn't
responded to medication, or is unable to take their medication. This method also works
for persons suffering from cystic fibrosis. Follow these steps to help relieve an asthma
attack:
1.
2.
3.
4.
If you are performing the maneuver on another, wrap your arms around the
victim's waist from behind.
Make a fist and place the thumb side of your fist against your (the victim's)
upper abdomen, below the ribcage and above the navel.
Grasp your fist with your other hand and press into your (the victim's) upper
abdomen with a quick upward thrust. Do not squeeze the ribcage; confine the
force of the thrust to your hands.
Repeat if necessary.
Alternatively, you can lean over a fixed horizontal object (table edge, chair, railing) and
press your upper abdomen against the edge to produce a quick upward thrust. Repeat if
necessary.
If the Victim has not recovered, proceed with CPR. The Victim should see a physician
immediately after rescue.
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The Heimlich Maneuver® for DROWNING
"You can't get air into the lungs until you get the water out!"
VICTIM LYING ON GROUND
1.
2.
3.
4.
Place victim on back. Turn face to one side to allow water to drain from mouth.
Facing victim, kneel astride victim's hips.
With one of your hands on top of the other, place the heel of your bottom hand
on the upper abdomen below the rib cage and above the navel.
Use your body weight to press into the victim's upper abdomen with a quick
upward thrust. Repeat until water no longer flows from the mouth.
STANDING IN A POOL OR SHALLOW WATER
(Bouyancy of the Water Lightens Victims' Weight)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Stand behind the victim and wrap your arms around victim's waist.
Make a fist and place the thumb side of your fist against the victim's upper
abdomen, below the rib cage and above the navel.
Grasp your fist with your other hand and press into the victim's upper abdomen
with a quick upward thrust. Do not squeeze the ribcage; confine the force of the
thrust to your hands.
Repeat until water no longer flows from the mouth.
If the Victim has not recovered, proceed with CPR. The Victim should see a physician
immediately after rescue.
This do cum ent w as pro duc ed with inform ation sa ved from the : h ttp://w ww .heim lichinstitute.org w eb site at a
time when the information was not publicly available online - 3 Feb 2009.
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Preventing needless Deaths by Asthma, Drownings and Heart Attacks
Correcting Medical Mistakes That Cause Thousands of Needless Deaths
Today, it has been proven that thousands of people, many of them children, are dying needlessly
from asthma attacks, heart attacks and drowning. Recent changes in lifesaving methods are being
taught to relatively small groups by first aid organizations. Until the word is spread to the entire
public, these unwarranted deaths will continue.
ASTHMA
Every year, more than 5000 Americans, many of them children, die during asthma attacks. In
1995, Hillary, a four-year-old child, diagnosed with asthma, suffered a severe asthma attack. Her
mother applied the Heimlich Maneuver® and, within a minute, the child was able to breathe
normally. The Heimlich Institute has received other reports of the Maneuver stopping asthma
attacks.
As described by the National Institutes of Health, asthma attacks constrict breathing tubes
(bronchi), which are then blocked by mucous plugs. The victim can breathe in, but cannot breathe
out. Trapped air distends the lungs. Victims then die because they can neither breathe in or out.
They also cannot inhale medication.
A Heimlich Maneuver, performed gently on one's self, or by a bystander, presses the diaphragm
upward, diminishing the volume of the chest cavity, which compresses the lungs, expelling
trapped air. This air flow may carry away mucous plugs and enable the asthma victim to resume
normal breathing. Additionally, use of the Maneuver once or twice a week to expel mucus from
the lungs in order to prevent asthma attacks is being studied. Those using the Heimlich Maneuver
for asthma should do so under a physician's care and be properly trained in use of the Maneuver.
HEART ATTACKS
CPR (CardioPulmonary Resuscitation) consists of mouth-to-mouth and pressing on the chest.
Mouth-to-mouth is a complex procedure. For almost thirty years the American Heart Association
has been teaching the public to perform CPR for heart attack victims. Throughout those decades,
no study was done to determine whether CPR was saving lives or causing deaths.
On May 25, 2000, a 7-year study by the University of Washington, in Seattle, was reported in the
prestigious New England Journal of Medicine and by the Associated Press. The study found that
911-operator instructions for using mouth-to-mouth for heart attacks increases the number of
deaths. Only 10% of those given mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions, survived to discharge
from the hospital. Nearly 15% receiving chest compressions alone recovered and were discharged
from the hospital.
Two months after the Seattle study appeared, the American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines
2000, published in its journal, Circulation, instructed emergency telephone operators to omit
teaching mouth-to-mouth for heart attack victims. 911 operators are instructed to teach callers,
faced with a heart attack victim, to use only chest compressions. In addition, AHA instructions no
longer require rescuers to use mouth-to-mouth for heart attacks. In fact, they warn that
mouth-to-mouth blows air into the stomach, not into the lungs, and this causes vomiting with
aspiration of vomit. The AHA also states that the exchange of saliva with mouth-to-mouth has
caused tuberculosis, herpes, and meningitis, and there is fear of spreading AIDS and hepatitis.
DROWNING
Most drowning victims die because their lungs fill with water, blocking the airway. They choke to
death on water. For four decades the American Red Cross taught rescuers to use CPR -- blow air
into a drowning victim's mouth. No study ever showed that doing mouth-to-mouth without first
removing the water from the lungs saved drowning victims.
A 1982 University of Pittsburgh study experimentally proved four Heimlich Maneuvers clear the
water from the lungs, enabling air to get into the lungs and allow victims to breathe.3 Four
Heimlichs take ten seconds to perform and anyone can do them. The Red Cross adopted the
Heimlich Maneuver for drowning victims in their 1995 manual First Aid Fast. In a five-year study,
conducted 1995-2000, 32,000 lifeguards were trained to use the Heimlich Maneuver as the first
step to resuscitate unconscious, non-breathing drowning victims. 97% of the victims survived with
full recovery. University studies, using CPR, reported 50%-60% of such drowning victims died.
Lifeguards are taught to use the Heimlich Maneuver to clear the lungs of water. Every year,
however, more than 1,000 children die of drowning at home - in toilets, bath tubs, pails of water,
and pools. In 18 states, drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children under five
years old. First to respond in the home is a parent or babysitter, many of whom attempt to use
only CPR. Media articles frequently report CPR was used by rescuers before children died of
drowning.
Many of the 284 million Americans know the Heimlich Maneuver. Reports of 911 operators
successfully instructing callers how to perform to the Maneuver to save choking victims show that
it is easily taught. The public must learn: To save drowning victims, perform the same Heimlich
Maneuver you would for a choking victim. Use the lying down (supine) position for adult victims.
Repeat until water no longer flows from the mouth. Proceed with CPR if warranted.
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