thank you for this video.
I only knew the technique of applying Heimlich to yourself using a table or something, but it always seemed like it would be too hard to do.

Nobody is going to put a "Forever Alone" tag?

I'm not usually the meme guy but here we go!

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35clj3/

That's a good one. This happened to me once. In the middle of the night, choked on a pretzel all alone in the kitchen. I eventually got it down, but it was a good minute of not being able to breathe, which was unpleasant.

That would have been a really stupid way to die.

...and now, listen to this tasty guitar riff.

@AeroMechanical
george w bush also choked on a pretzel. unfortunately, the pretzel was too small.

Good, but he only said how it works better that 'the alternatives'. I would like to know what alternatives he was talking about. EMPIRE mentioned a table, I heard it's best to bend/drop just below the ribcage onto the back of a chair. Assuming EMPIRE isn't a medical professional I'd go with the guy in the video, but I'm sure there are better last resorts online (without... like, actually looking... especially while you can't breathe).

Oh yeah. The 'not being able to breathe' is a big deal here. If you can only breathe a little bit, you can probably still breathe.

IANAMP.

*length=1:49

The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 1:49 - length declared by PlayhousePals.

I don't know if it works but I'm sure I'll try it if I'm alone.

i strongly recommend up voting this. When I first started bartending I had a customer choke on a philly sandwich. My response was "Are you choking?!"

He couldn't talk, but he nodded his head.

Instantly I came back with, "Are you SERIOUSLY choking NOW, HERE, in the BAR I'm WORKING at RIGHT NOW?!"

He nodded again, all I thought was "f"

The only thing that came to mind was my days as a boy scout. I did what I could and feverishly ran around the bar, performed the heimlich. He puked all over the place and I heard his lungs desperately sucking for air.

This video is so worth the up-vote. I had the cooks the and the waitresses just panicking, screaming, not helping. Please identify the problem and make the best choice available. Make good choices. I could have been wrong, but at least I tried.

Curious thing about choking, you never think it will happen to you, until some harmless trivial piece of food you have been eating all your damn life gets stuck in your stupid throat.

Even more important to chew thoroughly when your throat is sore or irritated.

I know someone who choked to death from eating chips too soon after being intubated for appendix removal. If it hurts to swallow, don't eat hard foods that will irritate it further and potentially kill you. They are hard to dislodge too since the swollen passage will tend to hold it and swell up more.

I don't have time to watch this now, but I will remember to google it when I am choking.

This might help you with the choking problem, but not with the being alone

CAUTION: this is one man's hypothesis.

Serious research goes into improving and testing choking and resuscitation techniques.

This wonderful gentleman is sharing his thoughts on a potentially very useful solo-Hemlich technique, not teaching something that has proven utility in real situations with variable body types (not just muscley ex-boxer firefighters, but busty middle-age women, skinny computer-nerd twenty-somthings, elderly post-hipsurgery grandpas, etc.).

Good to know all possible techniques though.

A friend's father just recently died from choking on a brussel sprout.

Choking on food is a ridiculous way to go, so any and all methods you can have in your head to get the food out are welcome.

If only Michael Hutchence had known this.