Think you know what to do if you see someone who's choking?
David Wilcox / The Citizen
Manuel Gomes, a server at Denny's in Auburn, walks by the restaurant's posted guidelines for performing the Heimlich maneuver. Such posters will soon be replaced as the American Red Cross's new choking rescue guidelines take effect.
Manuel Gomes, a server at Denny's in Auburn, walks by the restaurant's posted guidelines for performing the Heimlich maneuver. Such posters will soon be replaced as the American Red Cross's new choking rescue guidelines take effect.
Think again.
A story published in the Dec. 19 edition of The Citizen told the story of a diner at Lasca's who lost consciousness when a piece of food became lodged in his throat. His breathing and blood pressure were then restored by a local doctor and nurse who dually performed CPR. Prior to the doctor's intervention, fellow patrons at the restaurant had attempted to remove the food by using the Heimlich maneuver.
The Heimlich consists of wrapping your arms around the choking victim's stomach, just below the rib cage, and pulling upward in an attempt to force the food out of the victim's airway. The maneuver places pressure on the diaphragm, which in turn sends pressure through the lungs and windpipe like an artificial cough, thereby expelling the food. From 1985 to 2005, the maneuver was the only method advocated by the American Red Cross to assist choking victims.
An April 4 press release from the Red Cross announced an amendment to its guidelines for assisting conscious choking victims. The Heimlich maneuver was supplanted with back blows, which amount to forceful blows directed between the shoulder blades. The Heimlich Institute has long maintained that this approach to assisting a choking victim is not only less effective than the Heimlich maneuver, but it also carries a risk of pushing the lodged food further down the windpipe.
Back blows were advocated by the Red Cross as the best way to rescue a choking victim until Cincinnati-based physician Henry J. Heimlich began a media campaign for the maneuver he invented. It was adopted by the Red Cross following a 1985 conference of the American Heart Association, whose lead the Red Cross often follows in establishing first aid guidelines.
At that conference, Dr. Richard Day presented a choking rescue committee with the results of a study finding that back blows do indeed drive food further down the windpipe. The Heimlich maneuver subsequently replaced back blows as the recommended method of removing food from the throats of choking victims. However, Heimlich's son, Peter, points out that Day's research was devoid of scientific objectivity.
“What my father and Dr. Day failed to divulge was that my father had clandestinely funded the study and had a close relationship with Day,” said Peter Heimlich, son of Heimlich maneuver inventor Henry Heimlich, in an e-mail.
The committee did not discover the relationship between Heimlich and Day until 2005, when the American Red Cross coincidentally ceased referring to the Heimlich maneuver by the name of the man who invented it. The new term, “abdominal thrust,” was stated to have been selected for its simple descriptiveness. A series of five thrusts is now recommended by the Red Cross only in the event that five back blows are ineffective.
This shift in the Red Cross' policy was unknown to any of the persons interviewed for the Dec. 19 article. The Heimlich maneuver was assumed to be the proper method of assisting a choking victim, and no mention of back blows was made.
On Jan. 1 - almost eight months after the guideline change - the Cayuga County Chapter of the American Red Cross began teaching the new sequence of five back blows followed by five abdominal thrusts in its first aid classes. In the interim period between the change and its implementation in classes, the chapter's instructors were busy retraining with the new guidelines. However, it is not the responsibility of the chapter to inform people of the new first aid guidelines by going beyond the walls of its office on 11 State St.
“It's part of our new curriculum that we promote,” said Susan Marteney, executive director of the Red Cross' Cayuga County chapter. “If advertising it is something (the national Red Cross) thinks should be done, I think they would.”
The local Red Cross office is set to receive posters outlining the new steps in assisting a choking victim. Restaurants in New York state are required by law to “post such instructions in a conspicuous place or places in order that the proprietor and employees may become familiar with them.”
Law does not require restaurant employees or patrons to act during a choking emergency, but it does safeguard them against civil or criminal action in the event that injury is incurred in the midst of attempting first aid. Although the poster is the only legally mandated form of first aid instruction in restaurants, the Cayuga County Red Cross in the past has often taught restaurant staff how to apply the Heimlich maneuver. As of 2007, they will be teaching them what the Red Cross calls the “five-and-five” technique of back blows and abdominal thrusts.
“We contact many restaurants and if they respond, that's really their prerogative,” Marteney said.
Susan Bouley, co-owner of Curley's Restaurant, at 96 State St., Auburn, has yet to hear of the change to the Red Cross's choking rescue guidelines.
“It's definitely something we would like to be proactive about,” she said.
Bouley can recall only one choking episode that required the use of abdominal thrusts to remedy at the restaurant in the past 15 years. A poster listing the proper way to perform them is available to the restaurant's staff in the employee changing area.
Sean Lattimore, owner of the Springside Inn, on 6141 W. Lake Road, will be trained in the Red Cross's new guidelines when he re-certifies himself in first aid this February. Although the law does not require him to know how to administer first aid, he believes that “It's a good thing for me to know in case something happens.”
De-emphasizing the Heimlich maneuver - both the procedure and the name itself - will prove a substantial task that requires re-educating restaurant staff, rescuers and the general public. Despite all the work required of the Red Cross, Marteney is convinced that the change in their choking rescue guidelines will prove beneficial in the future.
“It's based on scientific facts and statistics, and if it helps save more lives, that's wonderful,” Marteney said.
A story published in the Dec. 19 edition of The Citizen told the story of a diner at Lasca's who lost consciousness when a piece of food became lodged in his throat. His breathing and blood pressure were then restored by a local doctor and nurse who dually performed CPR. Prior to the doctor's intervention, fellow patrons at the restaurant had attempted to remove the food by using the Heimlich maneuver.
The Heimlich consists of wrapping your arms around the choking victim's stomach, just below the rib cage, and pulling upward in an attempt to force the food out of the victim's airway. The maneuver places pressure on the diaphragm, which in turn sends pressure through the lungs and windpipe like an artificial cough, thereby expelling the food. From 1985 to 2005, the maneuver was the only method advocated by the American Red Cross to assist choking victims.
An April 4 press release from the Red Cross announced an amendment to its guidelines for assisting conscious choking victims. The Heimlich maneuver was supplanted with back blows, which amount to forceful blows directed between the shoulder blades. The Heimlich Institute has long maintained that this approach to assisting a choking victim is not only less effective than the Heimlich maneuver, but it also carries a risk of pushing the lodged food further down the windpipe.
Back blows were advocated by the Red Cross as the best way to rescue a choking victim until Cincinnati-based physician Henry J. Heimlich began a media campaign for the maneuver he invented. It was adopted by the Red Cross following a 1985 conference of the American Heart Association, whose lead the Red Cross often follows in establishing first aid guidelines.
At that conference, Dr. Richard Day presented a choking rescue committee with the results of a study finding that back blows do indeed drive food further down the windpipe. The Heimlich maneuver subsequently replaced back blows as the recommended method of removing food from the throats of choking victims. However, Heimlich's son, Peter, points out that Day's research was devoid of scientific objectivity.
“What my father and Dr. Day failed to divulge was that my father had clandestinely funded the study and had a close relationship with Day,” said Peter Heimlich, son of Heimlich maneuver inventor Henry Heimlich, in an e-mail.
The committee did not discover the relationship between Heimlich and Day until 2005, when the American Red Cross coincidentally ceased referring to the Heimlich maneuver by the name of the man who invented it. The new term, “abdominal thrust,” was stated to have been selected for its simple descriptiveness. A series of five thrusts is now recommended by the Red Cross only in the event that five back blows are ineffective.
This shift in the Red Cross' policy was unknown to any of the persons interviewed for the Dec. 19 article. The Heimlich maneuver was assumed to be the proper method of assisting a choking victim, and no mention of back blows was made.
On Jan. 1 - almost eight months after the guideline change - the Cayuga County Chapter of the American Red Cross began teaching the new sequence of five back blows followed by five abdominal thrusts in its first aid classes. In the interim period between the change and its implementation in classes, the chapter's instructors were busy retraining with the new guidelines. However, it is not the responsibility of the chapter to inform people of the new first aid guidelines by going beyond the walls of its office on 11 State St.
“It's part of our new curriculum that we promote,” said Susan Marteney, executive director of the Red Cross' Cayuga County chapter. “If advertising it is something (the national Red Cross) thinks should be done, I think they would.”
The local Red Cross office is set to receive posters outlining the new steps in assisting a choking victim. Restaurants in New York state are required by law to “post such instructions in a conspicuous place or places in order that the proprietor and employees may become familiar with them.”
Law does not require restaurant employees or patrons to act during a choking emergency, but it does safeguard them against civil or criminal action in the event that injury is incurred in the midst of attempting first aid. Although the poster is the only legally mandated form of first aid instruction in restaurants, the Cayuga County Red Cross in the past has often taught restaurant staff how to apply the Heimlich maneuver. As of 2007, they will be teaching them what the Red Cross calls the “five-and-five” technique of back blows and abdominal thrusts.
“We contact many restaurants and if they respond, that's really their prerogative,” Marteney said.
Susan Bouley, co-owner of Curley's Restaurant, at 96 State St., Auburn, has yet to hear of the change to the Red Cross's choking rescue guidelines.
“It's definitely something we would like to be proactive about,” she said.
Bouley can recall only one choking episode that required the use of abdominal thrusts to remedy at the restaurant in the past 15 years. A poster listing the proper way to perform them is available to the restaurant's staff in the employee changing area.
Sean Lattimore, owner of the Springside Inn, on 6141 W. Lake Road, will be trained in the Red Cross's new guidelines when he re-certifies himself in first aid this February. Although the law does not require him to know how to administer first aid, he believes that “It's a good thing for me to know in case something happens.”
De-emphasizing the Heimlich maneuver - both the procedure and the name itself - will prove a substantial task that requires re-educating restaurant staff, rescuers and the general public. Despite all the work required of the Red Cross, Marteney is convinced that the change in their choking rescue guidelines will prove beneficial in the future.
“It's based on scientific facts and statistics, and if it helps save more lives, that's wonderful,” Marteney said.
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