Emergency Medicine Specialist Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Toker; about the vital Heimlich maneuver; “The Heimlich maneuver is a simple medical intervention that can be applied by anyone,” he said.
Emergency Medicine Specialist Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Toker from Kayseri City Hospital; gave information about the Heimlich maneuver that should be applied when the airway is blocked. Stating that the important intervention to remove the foreign body blocking the respiratory tract is the Heimlich maneuver; “The Heimlich maneuver is a simple medical intervention that can be applied by anyone. Our main goal in the Heimlich maneuver is to apply pressure to the abdomen. The Heimlich maneuver helps to remove the foreign body from the respiratory tract of this person if the person cannot breathe in a partially or fully closed manner. This maneuver was described in the 1970s by Heimlich, who gave the maneuver its name. Here, if a person's airway is blocked and he/she makes the universal choking movement, we go to the person. If the person can make a sound, we think it is a partial obstruction, if he/she cannot make a sound at all and his/her lips turn purple, we think it is a complete obstruction. However, the treatment here is the same for both. We go to the person and encourage the person to cough. In this way, we enable the person to remove the foreign body. If he/she cannot remove the foreign body, we bend the person and hit him/her hard on the back 5 times. If he/she cannot get it out in this way, we now move on to the Heimlich maneuver. In the Heimlich maneuver, we grasp the person with the other hand with our dominant hand as a fist and squeeze the person between the place where the breast bones end and the belly button. We do the Heimlich maneuver 5 times in this way. If we are successful, we end the procedure. However, if we are not successful, we lay the person down again at 45 degrees and hit him/her 5 times strongly between both shoulder blades. We continue this process until we remove the foreign body or until the person loses consciousness. We want everyone to know about this procedure. It is a maneuver that saves lives and has very positive results.”
“The person applying the maneuver must be cold-blooded”
Toker noted that the maneuver is a face-lifting method; “First of all, the person and those around him/her need to be calmed down. The practitioner also needs to be cold-blooded. Then he/she needs to apply this procedure. The procedure is a very satisfying procedure and when done correctly, it is a successful procedure because it removes the foreign body. Therefore, it is necessary to be cold-blooded. If there is someone else around us, we tell them to call 112 Emergency Call Center and then we proceed immediately. But of course, if we are one person, we do the procedure first. Then, if the person loses consciousness, we call the 112 Emergency Call Center before starting basic life support. It's something that can happen to our students quite often. We can save students' lives with this information. We often see round foreign objects, especially candy, getting into students' throats. We recommend everyone to recommend this life-saving maneuver.”
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