If an ice cube was lodged in your throat, would you choke to death, or would the ice cube melt first?
My husband and I were dining at a cafeteria style restaurant several years ago when we heard a commotion across the room.Several people were gathered around a young girl who looked to be about 8 years old. The father was slapping her on the back violently as her horrified family and other diners looked on.She was blue in the face and suddenly fainted away.I had zero first aid training at the time but had seen the Heimlich Maneuver demonstrated on TV.I jumped out of my seat and grabbed the girl. She was dead weight. There was a bit of foam at the edge of her mouth.I did the Heimlich several times and nothing happened. On the 4th try, a huge square intact piece of ice flew out of her mouth and across the room.She gave out a shrieking cry and began gulping air and screaming. I delivered her to her mother who carried her off to the restroom with concerned restaurant staff and family at their heels.It happened SO FAST. I learned it does not take long to pass out from lack of air.The ice cubes in the drinks were ridiculous. Large, perfectly solid and square, and apparently, deadly.Would the ice have melted in time to save her life? I don't know, but that child was unconscious.UPDATE 4/23/18: I have learned from my doctor that a combination of back blows and Heimlich are recommended for a serious choking accident. Choking: First aid
What is the best thing to do when someone chokes on water?
To complement Liang-Hai's excellent answer... if they begin to recover (if they're coughing and gasping but breathing), do not pound them on the back, and especially do not attempt a Heimlich manouver; doing so may provoke them to vomit, which will make the problem much worse in a big hurry. Leave them alone physically and encourage them to breathe slowly and as deeply as they can as they expel the last of the water from their throat. The head-down face-down position is important, even if the head is only hung between the knees, permitting any water collected in their throat to drain out the mouth. You absolutely do not want their larynx to spasm shut in response to water intrusion.Expect full recovery to take quite some time, possibly as long as several hours if they were swimming when this happened and they were badly weakened by the event.
When someone drinks a liquid and immediately starts coughing/choking and does so for a few seconds, what is actually happening inside the body to cause the physiological response? I always heard people say the liquid "went down the wrong tube/pipe".
To add to Sarah Reyes's excellent answer, there is a valve-like thing at the top of both tubes at the back of our mouths (the epiglottis) which is located behind /below and beyond our uvula. The uvula is that punching-bag shaped thing that moves when we say AHHHH at the doctor's office so the doctor can look at the back of our throats when we have a physical examination performed by our internist or ENT.The valve is located above the larynx. It opens and closes so we can breathe or eat, but not both at the same time. That is why we sometimes choke: the valve doesn't close all the way and the bolus (the thing we are swallowing, be it saliva, water or food) goes down the wrong 'pipe' -- just as Sarah said.One example: people who have tracheostomies breathe through their trachea (air tube) and not through their nose or mouth. Their swallowing mechanisms are affected by the tracheostomy tube and they are at a greater risk for aspiration because the trach tube changes the angle of Os, and swallowing becomes something more difficult to accomplish.The need to breathe is greater than the need to swallow, and the airway needs to be protected. People with tracheotomies carry suction machines or have them handy so that they can clear the airway in the event of aspiration (aspiration is defined as inhaling into the trachea any solid or liquid thing, including saliva). Aspiration of non-sterile matter creates risk of infection, and aspiration pneumonia is a dangerous and common occurrence among people with trachs.People who have trouble swallowing pills intuitively understand this: when they place their heads in certain positions, it makes the pill easier to swallow and they minimize with their postural changes the possibility of choking on the pills.So when someone without a tracheostomy is drinking or eating and immediately starts coughing or choking and does so for a few seconds, the cough is clearing the airway (without using a suction machine to vacuum the contents out of the airway). Instead, the cough forces out the contents of the airway with a rush of powerful air flowing out of the lungs and hopefully out of the airway. Often whatever was there ends up in the mouth, and is then swallowed or spit out.
Is it possible to choke to death after swallowing an ice cube?
My most memorable time with my grandmother was when I was visiting her in Dallas when I was seven. I was drinking when a large ice cube accidentally slipped and lodged in my throat. I couldn't breathe a bit and knew I was in big trouble. She looked at me, took me by the hand and led me, the longest walk of my life, to the sink. She poured a glass of warm water and told me to drink it. And almost instantly, it went down. I don't know if I was more impressed at her wisdom or shocked at her calm manner as if this was a daily task.
Asthma attack after smoking weed?
Ok so I was with my boyfriend last night and he asked if I wanted to smoke weed with him. I've never smoked before and I was curious what it would be like! (He also told me that it would make sex feel amazing!! :p ) So he lights it up and smokes a few times before handing it to me while telling me how to use the pipe! I really could not get up the confidence to do it when I smelt it and saw how it was done so my boyfriend was patient and let me hold it and kinda just think if I really wanted to do this. So after awhile he suggests he could take a whiff and then breath it into my mouth as a kiss. I felt better doing it like that so I said yes and I inhaled as he blew it into my mouth. But as soon as I inhaled I coughed like no other and I could not breath at all. I had to take short raspy breaths to just get air. My chest and my throat felt like it was on fire. I did not know what to do so I started to cry and I mean really cry, I had never sobbed so much before and luckily since my bf was high he did not panic but he threw me down on the bed which he told me would open up my airways. It still hurt and I really could not breath still so my bf ran to his dads car and got his dads inhaler which actually did help after I used it. So my question is this, what the hell happened? Did I panic? Did I have a weird reaction to the weed. My bf and I just cant figure it out!! Any advice would be great! ^_^
What does a heart attack feel like?
I had a major heart attack in 2014, and here is my story:I woke up not feeling well - I couldn’t explain it… I just didn’t feel well.Around 9am, my mother and father stopped by; they had gone to the stations of the cross at the church right down the road. I began feeling a pain in my right arm, but I tried to ignore it. My mother looked at me and said that I didn’t look well, but I told her I was fine, so her and my father left.So, it was just me and my 23 year old son. He saw me rubbing my arm and asked me what was wrong. I told him I wasn’t sure - that it was like a pressure pain that was moving up my arm. He said it sounded like a heart attack, and I laughed because I thought that I was too young for a heart attack. In 2014 I was going to be 43, I believe.Anyhow, I told him that I was going to take a hot shower and put the water on my arm but that I was going to leave the door open in case I needed him to call someone. I got in the shower. At that point, the pain was in my upper arm and neck. I stood under the hot water and aimed on my neck, but it did not help. I was uncomfortable, but I managed to get out and get dressed.I then told my son that maybe a nap would make me feel better, but after just two minutes of lying down, I was too uncomfortable to bear it. I thought that I would do a breathing treatment to make myself feel better. To this day, I still wonder why in the world I thought that a breathing treatment would be effective even though I was breathing just fine and the pain was in my arm and neck.Anyway, I took out my nebulizer and albuterol and started the machine. I took one deep breath and the pain shot up from about a 5 to past a 10. I cried for my son to call 911.I made it to the local hospital, and they performed many tests and gave by nitro glycerin four times. They then stabilized me so that I could fly in the Flight for Life helicopter into the city for emergency surgery. In the city, I had a stent put in. That night, the nurse accidentally opened up my surgical site and blood splattered everywhere, making me lose so much blood that I needed two transfusions.I was told that I was lucky to be alive, and that I should have come in to the hospital when I first felt the pain in my arm and neck, and that that would have saved me a lot of trouble. I also suffered a mild brain injury because I didn’t have enough oxygen going to my head.
Can you die choking on water?
Yes, I think you could. It may have nearly happened to me.I was a fit and healthy male around 45 years old, I had just been for a bike ride with my 10yo son on a hot summers day. We arrived at our destination and I grabbed the wide mouthed water bottle from my bike and attempted to drink some water.The bottle was around 1/3 full. The water hit the neck of the bottle and a little, shot straight in to my trachea.My trachea clamped shut. I could not cough, I could not breathe in or out.After about a minute without oxygen I thought I should sit down before I fainted. I was finally able to drag some air in to my lungs and have a little cough. After repeating this I was slowly able to breathe again.My son was very concerned throughout this episode especially at the strange noises Dad was making while trying to breathe. Neither of us had any idea what to do. Luckily it all worked out.I am not sure what would have happened if I had passed out before breathing?
Is mibba.com free? read the first part atleast....?
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