Table of contents:
- How does choking occur?
- How to deal with choking on your own without the help of others
- 1. Stay calm
- 2. Force yourself to cough
- 3. Call the emergency number
- 4. Push the stomach
- 5. Use chairs
When you are enjoying your meal or sipping your favorite drink, you may accidentally choke. Don't underestimate it, because this condition can be serious and requires quick treatment. If no one around you can help, there are several ways to deal with choking on your own.
How does choking occur?
Quoted from Healthline, a person can experience a choking condition due to food, objects, or liquids stuck in the throat.
This stuck food or liquid clogs the windpipe, so that breathing becomes obstructed.
In children and toddlers, choking usually occurs as a result of carelessly inserting small foreign objects into the mouth. Meanwhile, adults generally choke from eating or drinking too fast.
If someone has this condition, the most common way to deal with choking is by coughing until the food or drink that is involved comes out or drops through the throat.
Almost everyone, including you, has probably experienced a choking condition once in a lifetime. This condition usually doesn't last long, but is potentially life-threatening if it doesn't go away and clogs breathing for too long.
How to deal with choking on your own without the help of others
Often times you read about ways to deal with choking in other people. However, what should you do if you are alone and experiencing this condition?
Here are some ways you can deal with choking on yourself:
1. Stay calm
Try to calm down and don't panic. Reacting to panic will only make choking worse and can actually put you in danger.
Choking is a serious condition because you may find it difficult to breathe for a while. However, you need to be calm and confident that this condition can definitely go through and you will be fine.
2. Force yourself to cough
The second way to deal with choking when you are alone is to cough vigorously. If you can still cough and talk, it means that your windpipe is not completely blocked.
Another way to treat less severe choking is to force yourself to laugh.
Avoid drinking water or forcibly swallowing food stuck in the throat. This actually has the potential to make choking conditions worse.
3. Call the emergency number
If you feel that you are unable to cope with the choking condition on your own and it's getting harder to breathe, call the emergency number right away. You can call 118 or 119 for an ambulance service or emergency medical services.
Even though you may have difficulty speaking and feel almost fainting, the medical team will know that you are experiencing a serious condition and need help as soon as possible.
4. Push the stomach
Another way to deal with choking is to push in the stomach yourself. This technique is similar to the one you would use when giving first aid to a choking person. The difference is, you are doing this technique to yourself.
First, place your hands in a fist above your belly button. Then, make sure your thumb is between your navel and ribs.
After that, hold your fist with your other hand. Push your stomach as hard as possible repeatedly.
Pushes in your stomach will put pressure on the bottom of your diaphragm. This method is expected to overcome choking and push the remaining air in the lungs, so that the food stuck in the throat will be pushed out.
5. Use chairs
If the previous method didn't work for the choking condition, try to do the technique yourself again using a slightly different technique.
Repeat the steps to push the stomach with the fist, but this time do it while leaning on a chair. By leaning back in the chair, the pressure will be greater and it will be easier for the air to pass upward or throat
