Comments on: Life and death: it’s a thin line

By: pgp

pgp — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:47:25 +0000

Thanks for posting this. These days it’s easy to forget the importance of the quiet, steady, personal things.

By: saveliberty

saveliberty — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:37:12 +0000

Oh wow! Thank goodness for the chef!

Please let your sister-in-law know that we are relieved to know that she escaped what we feared. Please also let her know that we wish that she would not be embarrassed.

(I am still recovering from brain surgery and I have a whole different perspective on what embarrasses me these days, which is precious little.)

Prayers for healing for your sister-in-law, your brother and you and your family.

By: bluewaterneocon

bluewaterneocon — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:51:56 +0000

Okay. Praying saves life.

By: bluewaterneocon

bluewaterneocon — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:48:52 +0000

If the Heimlich doesn’t work, try the back pounding. Whatever it takes to induce the victim to choke-up. That is what I learned as a member of the ski patrol and I have not seen it work but I have seen CPR work once. I have also seen someone die after using CPR and know that nothing would have helped him survive. Thank God Neo that your sister in law survived. This will be a moment for all of you to remember. The other side of the story would have been remembered as well, but more painfully. I held my husband when he died and it was a glorious moment as we were alone which is what we wanted. We knew he would die but it was nice to be together. Your sister in law did not want to die in such a public forum and you helped to keep that from happening by your presence and the grace of God. He answers to our prayers. Prayer saves lives.

By: kcom

kcom — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:13:57 +0000

I’m glad she’s okay. I’ve gotten myself out of a couple of potential (and momentarily scary) choking situations by remaining calm and methodically working whatever it was out of the way.

In the more prosaic grammar department, you should have said they were calling 911, not 9/11. 9/11 is a date, or, unfortunately, a historical event, but not an emergency number.

By: NeoConScum

NeoConScum — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:20:04 +0000

THANK GOD and a lifesaving Pro.

It’s a damned miracle that any of us survive childhood.

By: Jim Sullivan

Jim Sullivan — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 11:32:05 +0000

Thank God she’s OK. I love happy endings.

By: jhankey

jhankey — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:58:45 +0000

Also thank God you sister is still in the land of the liveing.

By: jhankey

jhankey — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:56:46 +0000

Yes it is a thin line indeed. To see it in person as you did is quite vivd. My experience from many years ago showed just how ephemeral life really is. It leads one to belive in something more durable, such as a soul.

By: Sergey

Sergey — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 07:50:52 +0000

“The majority of protocols now advocate the use of hard blows with the heel of the hand on the upper back of the victim. The number to be used varies by training organization, but is usually between five and 20.
The back slap is designed to use percussion to create pressure behind the blockage, assisting the patient in dislodging the article. In some cases the physical vibration of the action may also be enough to cause movement of the article sufficient to allow clearance of the airway.
Almost all protocols give back slaps as a technique to be used prior to the consideration of potentially damaging interventions such as abdominal thrusts,[2][3] but Henry Heimlich, noted for promulgating abdominal thrusts, wrote in a letter to the New York Times that back slaps were proven to cause death by lodging foreign objects in to the windpipe.[4]
The findings of a 1982 Yale study by Day, DuBois, and Crelin that “persuaded the American Heart Association to stop recommending back blows for dealing with choking…was partially funded by Heimlich’s own foundation.”[5] According to Roger White MD of the Mayo Clinic and American Heart Association (AHA), “There was never any science here. Heimlich overpowered science all along the way with his slick tactics and intimidation, and everyone, including us at the AHA, caved in.”[6]”
That is from wiki article “Choking”. I can add to this that any kind of treatment of choking is not a simply mechanical procedure. Mechanically you can do nothing. The real goal should be to provoke a powerful coughing reflex, a convulsive spasm of diaphragm, like occuring in whooping cough. The most safe way to do this is percussion at a point between shoulder blades. It works like knee-jerk reflex. Abdominal trusts advocating by Heimlich also can provoke this, but less reliably and in more traumatical way. It also requires inordinary physical strength and is ineffective when patient is fat with lots of extra fat tissue at abdomen.