Choking Protocol
Our first aid response to a client who is choking
Goal To ensure all clients are safe during their mealtimes.
Objectives
Objectives
- Support staff working with a client with dysphagia have access to the client's Care Instructions, and their specific care and support plans: Dysphagia Management Plan and Mealtime Management Plan.
- Support staff are up to date with their First Aid Training.
- Support staff have achieved competency in our choking protocol.
Signs and Symptoms of Choking
- Persistent cough
- Inability to breathe, speak, swallow, cry or cough
- Wheezing - making a whistling or ‘crowing' noise
- Gagging
- Can't make any sound at all
- Clutching at their throat
- Anxiety, restlessness
- Collapsed and unconsciousness
- have no air coming out of their nose and mouth
- have blue lips, face, earlobes or fingernails
- loss of consciousness
The First Aid Response to Choking
- Try to keep the person calm.
- Ask them to cough to remove the object/obstruction/blockage.
- Call triple zero (000) for an ambulance if coughing doesn't work.
- Bend the person forward and give them up to 5 sharp blows on the back between the shoulder blades with the heel of one hand.
- After each blow, check if the blockage has been cleared.
- If the blockage still hasn’t cleared after 5 blows, position the person so their back is against a firm surface for back support. Place the heel of your other hand on the lower half of the breastbone (in the central part of the chest). Press hard into the chest with a quick upward thrust as if trying to lift the person.
- If there is no firm surface available place one hand behind the person to support them and place the heel of your other hand on the lower half of the breastbone (in the central part of the chest). Press hard into the chest with a quick upward thrust as if trying to lift the person.
- After each thrust, check if the blockage has been cleared.
- If the blockage has not cleared after 5 thrusts, continue alternating 5 back blows with 5 chest thrusts until emergency medical help arrives.
- If the patient becomes blue, limp or unconscious, Start CPR immediately and continue until medical help arrives (Click the blue START CPR link above to watch a demonstration video).
- When the ambulance arrives, stay with the paramedics in case they need further client information, and reassure the client if they become responsive.
- Complete an Incident Report and verbally update your supervisor as soon as possible.
- As you have participated in a traumatic event, debriefing with your supervisor or a professional counsellor is important for your well-being.
Choking Protocol Competency Assessment
References and Sources