CPR training comes in handy in various places. A restaurant (or any food-serving establishment) may easily be a scene of an incident that involves breathing issues. The culprit is usually a piece of food stuck inside someone’s throat. Unless helped correctly, the object can choke the person to death or unconsciousness. You can actually provide extensive range of help, based on what sort of throat blockage they experience. That’s exactly why restaurant staff should be able to provide such help, including CPR, Heimlich maneuvers, and more. For this reason, CPR training for cafes and restaurants exists.
Applying first aid
First, let’s learn to distinguish when certain types of help are appropriate. Depending on whether the person is unconscious or fully awake, you’ll have to choose between CPR and choking aid respectively.
Let’s start with the regular aid for choking and first aid. Most of the time, it includes abdominal pushes (or Heimlich maneuver), but you can also try alternating the method with back blows. Heimlich, however, is a top priority and you need to apply it immediately if you see the signs of choking. What are these signs, anyway?
You can get the idea here, but it’s better to sign for CPR trainings in MA to know more. For starters, if the person is clutching their throat, it’s an immediate giveaway. It’s instinctive, after all. However, the person might not always do so, which means you need to look out for other signals.
These include rattled breath, coughing, loss of speech, and skin turning blue or pale. Some of these may not be the case, depending on the exact situation. However, if you notice at least some of these, you shouldn’t waste any more time and start applying the Heimlich.
How do you do the Heimlich? CPR training schools teach that. It’s simple, here’s a breakdown: stand behind the choking person, place a fist on their stomach between the lowest ribs, place the other hand around the fist, start pushing against the belly. If, after 10 attempts, the choking isn’t relieved, try giving sharp blows between the shoulders.
If that doesn’t help, call 911 and attempt cardiac resuscitation. By that time, they’ll be nearing unconsciousness. If you are the one choking on the food piece, attempt the same maneuver, but press your belly additionally against a chair or a table.
CPR could be helpful if the person is already unconscious and you know they can’t breathe normally, which is taught in various CPR training classes in Boston. If they are lying on their back and you can see the choking object in their mouth, then you should attempt removing it instead. Just be careful: if you can’t remove it safely, don’t try it.
CPR is a better choice if the thing is located deep inside the throat. Just encompass your one hand with your other hand and form the latter into a fist. Push this formation against the person’s chest and hope for the object to get out of the airway.
Where do I find CPR training near me?
Such procedures can be learned at various first aid schools all over Massachusetts. If you’re from Boston or the outskirts, you can sign up for an extensive class over at Saving Hands (in Waltham). The official website is savinghands.net. The CPR and Heimlich lessons are part of the bigger first aid course. You can sign up for it for a small fee.
Check the schedule, register, pay and attend the class at any time. Besides learning all of these wonderful tricks, you can learn a lot more about first aid. That includes lessons of first aid CPR and Heimlich training, pediatric first aid, and even the full basic life support procedure (in another class).