HOME TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1934, Page 13

HOME TREATMENT.

WHEN A CHILD CHOKES. (By PERITUS.) Obstruction to breathing happens in many ways—hanging, drowning, pressure from outside, gassing, poisoning, and objects partly swallowed and "stuck," false teeth, food, or a toy used in thr. mouth or a smaller foreign body drawn into the windpipe or its opening. The distress is severe and usually immediate. Instant action is required. The '.0111 mon instruction is to slap the patient's back hard, between the shoulder blades. In many cases this succeeds, but not always, and if you know the nature of the obstruction you can act accordingly. If a child has partly swallotved a coin, or a large marble, if he if, held up by the feet and sharply jerked, the obstruction, being heavy, may drop out. If the obstruction is one that may be pushed into the gullet (and no to the stomach) first put two fingers behind the tongue and attempt to draw the object back, and. failing, then push it down. The sudden relief to tie struggle for breath may reward you with bitten fingers—no matter. If the

obstruction is light and small —like the peanut mentioned in a recent fatality —it can be ejected by a method useful with children. Stand the child between your knees so that your thighs press firmly upon his back and abdomen; put your left hand between his shoulder blades, and strike him smartly with your open right hand, 011 his chest. The air already there will bo forced upwards in a sudden spurt, and the nut, or shell, or fruit skin will be ejected. If the grip with the thighs is relaxed and the abdomen released part of the force of the blow will be lost. It is well for mothers to rehearse accidents (and tho treatment) before they actually arise. I must confess to being "bustled" myself, more than once, by a choking patient, and not a moment to lose. With instruments at hand, the immediate opening of tho email space below the "Adam's apple" is an emergency operation which may save life, and in case of great urgency a penknife inserted here and half-turned will admit air until further aid is sought.