How to help someone who is choking: Just do it

People without a shred of medical training can save the life of a person who is choking. With the Heimlich maneuver, amateurs and professionals can rescue a stranger — or a loved one.

That truth came home for Paul Porter, medical director of emergency medicine at Allegheny General Hospital.

“About four years ago I saved my older daughter’s life with this technique,” he said. “For me, it’s very personal.” It is important, he added, that a would-be rescuer first determine that the victim can’t breathe and that the windpipe is blocked with something.

If a person can’t speak to answer the question, “Are you choking?” that’s a blocked airway.

Dr. Porter recalled being in an ice cream shop with his daughter, who was 9 at the time.

“She was eating vanilla ice cream with M&Ms with peanuts when she ran to the women’s room,” he recalled. He got concerned and found her turning blue, starting to pass out. He used the maneuver, he said, and “the M&M with peanut shot out, and she was breathing again.”

He said his dear daughter is now doing well and making her dad proud as a good student and lacrosse player.

If an adult or child age 1 and up is choking and conscious but unable to breathe, any concerned person can step up to give the abdominal thrusts to dislodge the obstruction. If a person loses consciousness, CPR and a call to 911 is recommended.