The Heimlich Maneuver

My little 4 year old son, Matthew, started choking on his food at the dinner table last night. I felt a surge of panic as I rushed to him to assess if he would need help dislodging the food stuck down his throat. My mind raced instantly through the steps of administering the Heimlich maneuver. I was relieved when he coughed up what he was choking on, and I would not need to assist him. I have never had to do the Heimlich maneuver on anyone, and I had only seen it done in person once, and that was a long time ago when I was only 6 years old. My family and I were eating dinner one night when my mother started choking. My dad had excused himself a few minutes earlier to take a shower and clean up before having to leave for a meeting. Seeing that my mother needed help,my oldest sister ran to get my dad out of the shower to come and administer the Heimlich maneuver on mom. I remember sitting at the table next to my mom, watching her choke and feeling very scared and helpless while we waited for my dad to arrive and safe her. Within seconds of my sister rushing out of the room for help, my father came running into the kitchen. He was dripping wet, and completely naked. I was terrified! Have you ever seen anyone give the Heimlich maneuver? You have to spread your legs out and squat down in order to balance yourself while your wrapping your arms around the person in distress. And then you push your fists into their stomach with quick strong thrusts, over and over, until the thing being choked on is successfully dislodged from the victims airways. It’s a pretty jolting maneuver. Things bounce around a lot doing those kinds of motions--even with your clothes on---and my little brain was on overload from watching this scene play before my eyes. After my dad saved my moms life, he calmly turned around and with quiet dignity walked down the hallway to finish his shower. The room was silent except for the sound of my mother catching her breath. I quickly glanced around at my siblings, hoping to see from their faces that I was not the only one who just witnessed this traumatic and shocking event. They all seemed suddenly interested in the food still on their plates. I stared down the now empty hallway trying to process everything I had just seen. Then a smile started to spread across my face… followed by uncontrolled laughter, which my mother immediately scolded me for. That was the first and thankfully so far, only time, I had ever seen anyone do the Heimlich maneuver with no clothes on!