[music playing]
City of New Orleans, 911, what's your emergency?
OK, and do we know what he's choking on?
Tell me, is he able to breathe at all?
OK.
All right.
I have fire and EMS en route to you, OK?
Can you turn him on his side?
Listen to me.
We need to do the Heimlich maneuver again, ma'am.
You're going to put your arms around his waist
and make a fist for me.
Grab him with the other hand above the belly button.
Jerk really hard, and it's a quick motion
up into his stomach.
Keep doing that until he can breathe, talk, or cry.
You're going to have to keep going until they arrive.
All right, ma'am.
They're en route to you.
I am headed to a person that was initially choking
on a piece of meat and then went unresponsive
and stopped breathing.
So this sounds like a full airway obstruction, which
can very rapidly then progress into
respiratory and cardiac arrest.
If it is a full obstruction, especially with food,
we can try to pull it out of the throat,
see if we can ventilate them to the point
where they start responding again and breathing.
This is one of those true life or death moments
where every second matters, because there are
two things that are happening.
Number one, he's not getting any oxygen to his brain
and to his organs.
And number two, his heart is going to stop.
Right here?
Oh yeah, he sure the [bleep] is.
OK. OK.
OK.
We're going to help him.
(TO RADIO) On scene.
No, no, no.
Don't do the Heimlich.
You can stop.
Don't do the Heimlich.
We're going to get him.
Once a patient reaches the level of being unresponsive,
they cannot support themselves in an upright position.
And so the Heimlich maneuver is not appropriate
anymore for this patient.
Do you all know what he's choking on?
Hurry up and get the stretcher.
Get everything off.
Get his leg.
Hold on.
Everyone relax.
It's OK.
He's got [inaudible] right now.
I am responding to a call for a male that
is choking on a piece of steak.
While choking, this patient started to panic, which is
how he maybe ended up outside.
He is unresponsive, purple from head to toe
and barely breathing.
This guy has a full airway obstruction.
[muffled moan]
All right, buddy.
We got you, man.
We got you man.
I know.
We got you.
The first thing that I do is grab our video laryngoscope
and the magill forceps.
So, in being able to visualize what is in his throat,
I can come in with the forceps, grab
it, and pull it out manually.
Let go, buddy. Let go.
There we go.
[interposing voices] OK.
Oh, good.
Good, good.
Sit up, sit up, sit up.
Sit up.
Hey man.
He's still got a large chunk of it in there.
[coughs]
Spit.
There we go.
[coughs]
Can you speak to us?
Tell us your name.
There you go.
All right.
Phew.
Can we try to put that oxygen mask on you for a minute, bud?
All right.
Just take a deep breaths for now.
And you're also going to feel some swelling
and some things like that.
So I don't want you to keep coughing if we can't
get anything up, all right?
He's able to talk to us, but he doesn't
really know what happened.
He doesn't realize he just almost died.
Oh, you were blue, man.
You were purple, yeah.
[coughs]
I would--
[coughs]
If this is what he's going to do--
Yeah, I would go to the hospital,
just because he's going to have some airway swelling.
They may want to just to tube him.
Is that your family out there, buddy?
I'm going to let them know just--
- What's your name? - --since they're so freaked.
What?
[inaudible]
All right.
Good, good.
Hey, guys.
Yeah.
So we have the piece out.
He's up.
He's breathing on his own.
Oh, thank [inaudible]
We're going to, of course, transport him to the hospital,
because I do still-- there is still a piece in there.
But he is up, he's breathing on his own, and he's aware.
OK.
Yeah you can look at him for a second.
They just want to look at him for a second.
But we still have a lot to do, OK?
His outcome should be phenomenal.
Without our intervention, this person could
have very much been deceased.
62 49, you can show me clearance for 32 44 code three
to University with one patient.
Yeah, that was a bad one.
[sirens]
That dude almost died in front of us.
I just pulled the whole piece of steak out the mouth.
That's a sexy save.
That dude's got to be so thankful.
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