< b>Heimlich maneuver: An emergency treatment for obstruction of the airway
in adults. It may be needed when someone chokes on a piece of food that has "gone
down the wrong way."
To perform the Heimlich maneuver, stand behind the victim, wrap your arms around
their waist, makes a fist with one hand and holds the fist with the thumb side just
below the breast bone. Place your other hand over this first and use it to pull
sharply into the top of the choking person's stomach and forcefully presses up into
the victim's diaphragm to expel the obstruction (most commonly food). Repeat as
necessary.
In the early 1970s the American surgeon Henry Heimlich noted that food and other
objects that caused choking by blocking the airway from the mouth to the lungs were
not expelled by giving sharp blows to the back. In 1974 he devised a new method
that he tested on laboratory dogs. The new manual thrust method -- the "Heimlich
maneuver" -- is now in standard use. If the Heimlich maneuver is unsuccessful, an
emergency tracheostomy may be needed to prevent suffocation.
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