Cricothyrotomy

[pauliwauli2]

If you are in a public place and someone urgently needs an emergency airway, can any old joe public do it if it's essential, or do you HAVE to have training?

And if you did have to perform it, what could you use? I'm sure I saw on some drama programme that you can use the plastic part of a pen but that's probably a load of balls!

[Sqad]

paula.....just hope and pray that you are never in that situation.

Anyone could make an incision into the windpipe, by luck or by judgement, but whether the patient would survive is another matter......DON'T TRY.

Nobody other than a Dr. should be trained to do a Cricothyroidotomy or tracheostomy and even then doing it outside an operating theatre is hazardous in the extreme.

Fortunately, the only reason to warrant urgent treatment would be if a foreign body was stuck in the trachea (windpipe) and in that case Heimlich's Procedure would be the treatment of choice.

Google........Heimlich's Procedure.

[pauliwauli2]

Tah for the answer sqad. Heimlich's makes more sense now that I think about it!

[bednobs]

they did it with a pen on jims kitchen table in neighburs once .....

[marval]

They have done it in Casualty too, but it is only a drama.