Real First Aid for the Real World
Hi, I’m Justin and I’m a trainer with the Singapore First Aid Training Centre.
I had a great chinese child care class last weekend. The vibe is high, class is responsive and received good energy from the crowd.
So a child care teacher asks me a very interesting question.
She says “In the old days, when a child is choking, her mom simply blows some breath onto the forehead of the choking child, and the choking symtoms just disappear. Is that true?” I told her that it is just a myth.
Blowing onto the forehead doesn’t help in relieving choking. Rather, a proper abdominal thrust or chest thrust is needed to be rendered to someone who is choking.
The video here shows you how to help a child who is choking using the abdominal thrust method. This is the recommended method by the National Resuscitation Council.
You need to first ensure that a child is choking. A person who is choking has complete blockage of the airway and will not be able to speak, breathe or cough. Frequently, they will be grasping their throat – what is commonly known as the Universal Sign of Choking. When you see these signs, you must immediately perform amdomonal thrusts as shown in the video.
Continue to the abdominal thrusts until the object is dislodge or the child turns unconscious (which you will need to proceed with CPR, with the exception of a mouth check before giving breaths).
Even if the object is dislodge it is still recommended for the child to bring the child to the emergency room for further assessment.
We hope that this video has helped you understand the steps of choking better. To get frequent updates and tutorials on first aid and CPR, fill in the form below:
I refer to the article “Her quick actions save child from choking to death” published on the 3rd of April 2009 in the New Paper.
I would like to commend Madam Ng for her quick thinking and prompt action which had saved Robyjnn from being a victim of choking.
Things like these happen when they are least expected and if you just stall for a minute trying to figure out what to, it could potentially cause someone their life. What’s worse is that when it happens to someone near and dear, it could be even harder to react rationally. Yet, many of us take this for granted.
We are so caught up in our busy lives and what’s going on in the world that we rarely stop to think, what if someone at home swallows on a sweet or a piece of meat and chokes? Do I know what to do?
The real question is do we really want to wait till it happens to find out.
Nobody wants to stand around watching your loved one die before your eyes. That is why it is imperative that everyone should develop first aid skills. At least for the sake of the people you love.
For the benefit of ST readers, we have created a simple instructional video on How To Help A Choking Child. It can be viewed on our blog at www.firstaidtraining.com.sg/choking
What Madam Ng did was one of the methods using back blows. The video that we created shows the recommended method by the National Resuscitation Council and the American Heart Association, which is by performing abdominal thrusts with a clenched fist just above the navel.
Although both methods will help, some reports favour the abdominal thrust method because it is found to produce a greater pressure than back blows and tend to be more effective in dislodging the foreign body. Many of our participants have shared with us how they managed to help someone who was choking using the abdominal thrust method.
We urge everyone to learn at least the basic skills of first aid and CPR. You never know when you need to use them, or who will need them. And when that time comes and passes, can you live knowing whether you did or did not help?
Extracted from the NewPaper >>
SHE was not allowed to eat in class so three-year-old Robyjnn Lui swallowed the sweet.
But it got stuck in the girl’s throat, causing her to choke.
By the time her Mandarin teacher realised what was happening, Robyjnn’s lips and face had turned blue.
She tried to get Robyjnn to vomit into a waste basket while patting her back, but to no avail.
With five other children in the class to handle, the teacher called out to the branch manager, Madam Ng Siew Yann, who was in a storeroom 3m away.
The quick-thinking Madam Ng grabbed Robyjnn and lifted her with the girl’s stomach over her left forearm, and patted her several times.
When it did not work, Madam Ng, 33, said she gave a couple of hard thumps on her back until she managed to clear the blockage.
Madam Ng said: ‘It was frightening to see her face blue, and that her eyes had turned red and wet. I could also hear she had difficulty breathing.
‘Luckily, she pointed to her throat to indicate that something was stuck inside. My focus was just to get her to throw up.’
The incident happened at about 4pm two weeks ago at the Thomson branch of Berries World of Learning School where Robyjnn attends a weekly Mandarin enrichment class.
After clearing Robyjnn’s airway, Madam Ng said she hugged the student and told her everything was fine.
‘I asked her if she was okay. She smiled at me and nodded her head,’ said Madam Ng.
Just then, the girl threw up on her and vomited two more times. By then, several teachers were on hand to help.
They cleaned up the girl and changed her clothes.
The incident didn’t appear to affect Robyjnn.
‘She looked fine after that. She was even jumping about like nothing had happened,’ Madam Ng added.
She called Robyjnn’s mother immediately after the incident to inform her.
And as it turns out, her mother, Madam Chan Yee Yin, 39, had given her a sweet to pacify her before class as she was grouchy.
Grateful parents
She and her husband were so grateful that they went to the school later that day with chocolates and biscuits to thank Madam Ng.
They also wrote a commendation letter to Madam Ng’s employer, and alerted The New Paper to her good deed.
Clearly unaffected by the incident and unfazed by the attention, Robyjnn said: ‘I was trying to swallow the sweet but it got stuck.’
Said Madam Chan, a corporate communications director: ‘In this day and age, there are still good people out there who take so much pride in their work and expect nothing in return.’
Madam Wynne Li, the founder and managing director of the school, said she appreciated the commendation from Robyjnn’s parents, and that Madam Ng’s actions have earned her bonus points as part of her appraisal.
Madam Li said: ‘It’s all about crisis management, and she did it well. She was cool headed enough to deal with the situation. It’s all because of her love for the children and for her job.’
As part of their training, new employees are put through a five-day course, where they are also taught how to administer first-aid, and how to deal with emergencies such as cuts, bleeding, choking and asthma attacks.
Madam Ng, a mother of three young children, played down her actions.
She said: ‘It’s part of our job. Anyone faced with the same situation would have done the same.’
