Children under 5 have the highest risk of choking, but it can happen at any age. Dr. Henry Heimlich, the surgeon who invented the Heimlich Maneuver, recently saved a fellow resident at his retirement home when she started choking during dinner. He’s 96, and she’s 87.
 
About 50% of choking cases are caused by food so you too can save lives by knowing the common hazards, and taking a few simple steps. Take a look at these suggestions for dealing with choking in adults, and some extra precautions for children.
 
Preventing Choking for Adults:

1. Take small bites. Cut your food into small pieces. Chew each mouthful thoroughly. Watch out for foods that encourage big bites, like juicy steaks and thick sandwiches.
   
   
2. Sit down. There’s a flap called an epiglottis at the base of your tongue that opens to let air into your windpipe, and closes to keep out food. When you walk or talk while eating, it’s harder for your epiglottis to keep up.
   
   
3. Limit alcohol. Too many cocktails can interfere with your judgement. You may forget about eating safely, and react slower if you start to choke.
   
   
4. Drink liquids. On the other hand, water helps food to go down more smoothly. Have a drink between mouthfuls.
   
   
5. Rethink nut butters. Size isn’t the only factor in choking. Texture plays a part, making peanut butter a common hazard. Adding jelly helps to prevent a thick glob from forming in your mouth. The same goes for spreading it on crackers or wheat bread instead of snacking off a spoon.
   
   
6. Avoid food games. Eating competitions or even throwing grapes and catching them in your mouth can lead to tragedy. Find safer forms of entertainment.
   
   
7. Talk with caregivers. Seniors sometimes choke due to having less saliva, wearing dentures or taking certain medications. Discuss your concerns with your loved ones and their caregivers.
   
   

Preventing Choking for Children:

1. Supervise eating. Most of the guidelines for adults hold true for kids as well. Model good habits for your children and keep a close eye on them during meal times and snacks.
   
   
2. Be selective about food. It’s wise to keep things like popcorn and nuts away from children until they’re about 4. Wait until they have their back teeth for grinding, and more practice eating.
   
   
3. Inspect toys. Consult the age labels on toys and throw them out if parts become loose or broken. Watch your surroundings for coins or other small items a child may want to play with and put in their mouth.
   
   
4. Expect gagging. Some gagging is natural in children as they master solid food, and they’ll usually recover quickly on their own. Your pediatrician can tell you if there are any complications like swollen tonsils or GERD.
   
   

Treating Choking for Adults and Children:

1. Call 911. Call for help if you see someone choking or unconscious. If you’re the only one around, start performing first aid before calling. If you are fast with your phone, call 911 and put it on speaker phone. If you have a virtual assistant on your phone, then yell for it to call 911. When possible, never hesitate to get emergency assistance. Only perform the Heimlich (abdominal thrust) and NEVER do a blind finger sweep (only pull out an object that you can see) and do not hit the person on the back (the only time you can hit them on the back is when their head is lower than their hips).
   
   
2. Be prepared. Learn CPR and the Heimlich maneuver before you need them. The American Heart Association, The American Red Cross and other organizations provide first aid trainings regularly. Regular training to maintain high quality skills and knowledge based on current science will help you to greatly increase the persons chances of survival. Sign up for classes now! The life you save, could be that of someone you love! 
   
   
3. Treat yourself. If you’re the one choking, and you can’t talk, try to attract someone’s attention by putting your hands around your throat. You can also try doing abdominal thrusts on yourself in an emergency. Dial 911 on your phone and then attempt to do abdominal thrust on yourself. If you are pregnant, move your hands up to your breastbone and push hard and fast on your chest trying to cause air to be forced from your chest to push the object out. Try coughing to get the object out.

 
​Follow up can be life or death! Anyone who was choking, with or without receiving abdominal thrust, needs to be seen by a healthcare professional immediately to be evaluated for residual effects or for trauma caused by choking or by rescue attempts.

Choking represents the fourth leading cause of home injury deaths and causes about 100,000 ER visits each year. Protect yourself and your loved ones by eating carefully, creating a safe environment for your children, and learning CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.
 
Helping a choking infant (age 0 to 1 year) requires different techniques. Be sure to add the infant choking module to your online learning or even better, do the in-person training. Most people are more likely to perform first aid and perform it correctly when they have had the blended learning option or all in person training. Always do your best to bring the best tools and skills to an emergency.  

​Eclipse 2017
Health and Safety planning: Set yourself up for success!
There are rumors based on truth and myth. I say overprepare and then enjoy yourself worry free.

• How can traffic impact me and those I care about?
• Traffic may be full or backed up with long delays August 18th through the 23rd. Give or take.

Traffic may have great delays causing people to be stuck in traffic for long periods of time unable to make it home, to work or to child care for much longer than expected.
People may be home alone much longer than expected.
Don’t expect to make a quick trip to the store or anywhere in that time.
Be prepared that traffic may cause a domino effect of issues:

• Emergency rescue services may be delayed and may be delayed by a very long time. I’m not sure how long if at all but be prepared with First Aid supplies and anything else that can help you during an emergency.
  • If you have a loved one or a client you care for that may need CPR, be prepared to have them in a space that is easy to access. Have a CPR board if needed.
  • Have back up assistants that are trained in CPR and are able to perform it and be prepared to switch rescuers every two minutes to keep your compressions strong until EMS arrives.
  •  Have a list of medications and medical conditions handy to hand over to EMS quickly if they are called out to assist you, your loved ones or clients.
• For those on oxygen and with other medical needs, make sure they have enough back up oxygen should there be power outages at any time. Power outages are not expected, but with traffic accidents this does happen from time to time.
  • If there should be a power outage: have food handy that does not require cooking or heating, especially if you have people with diabetes or other health conditions where they need to eat regularly.
  • Animal Safety and Care: Make sure that animals are set up with extra water and food and a way to get out to use go pee. If you should be stuck in traffic for several hours, your animals should not be stuck in kennels! Puppies and elderly dogs should not be in a kennel for more than 3 to 4 hours as they cannot hold their bladder that long.
  • Children: Be prepared to have water, snacks, books, crayons and paper and other items to keep them busy should you be stuck in traffic. As well: know where restrooms are along your route and give them opportunities to use the restroom when possible. For babies: Have a backup of bottles, water, formula, diapers, wipes and other baby essentials.   
  • Elderly and disabled: If you have family or clients that are homebound be sure to set them up for success in the case of being along for long periods of time.
    • Please leave needed items where they can reach them!
    • Make sure they can call 911 if needed!
    • Make sure they have plenty of access to water, and food.
    • Make sure their medications, blood sugar test kit  and oxygen are set up, ready to use and easily accessible to them.  
• Do your shopping days beforehand. Buy a bit extra!
  • Make sure to include your first aid supplies, batteries and other emergency items that are needed for your first aid and emergency kits.
  • Be sure to include, baby supplies, supplies for those you care for and pet food as traffic may be heavy for quite some time.
  • Gas up in advance!
• Be prepared for other emergencies: Have an evacuation plan!
  • Local wildfires, and other common emergencies known to the area you will be in.
• Traffic: Watch out for other drivers and make safe decisions!
  • Drivers may be distracted, stay present and aware of your actions and theirs!
  • Do NOT text and drive, look up for the eclipse or be distracted in any way! Keep your eyes on the road. Pull over if needed.
  • Keep a first aid kit in your car if possible: Include a mylar emergency blanket, water and snacks.
  • If you need any medical emergency items such as an EPI pen, inhaler or other medication or food items (for blood sugar), HAVE THEM WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES!
  • Don’t drive if you don’t have to! Not being in traffic is the safest way to deal with the heavy traffic.
• OTHER:
  • Wear protective eye glasses specific to the eclipse!
  • Make sure the glasses you are using have NOT been recalled!

 

• DON’T COUNT ON THIS BLOG TO ANSWER ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS. Do your research and check out reliable sources specific to where you will be and for your specific needs.

 
Here’s a few incredible links to get you started:
Important resources to view: These came from Oregon Office of Emergency. Please click on each link and invest a brief moment to view each one.

• http://www.oregon.gov/osp/sfm/Pages/eclipse.aspx
• http://www.oregon.gov/osp/Pages/Solar-Eclipse-2017--Information.aspx
• http://keeporegongreen.org/
• https://salemareaeclipse.info/2017/07/10/3-things-that-wont-happen-due-to-the-solar-eclipse-and-3-things-that-will/#more-387
• https://salemareaeclipse.info/
• https://www.saif.com/news/the-eclipse-hazard-you-probably-havent-thought-about-video.html

Hi friends. 
I cannot stress enough the value of making sure that you sign up for the class that is correct for your license, school admissions, or HR department (new hire or work requirements). 

About 10% or more of the students that I teach are there paying for and attending their second CPR class in a month or so because they took a class somewhere that did not meet the requirements needed for work or school. This doesn't have to happen.  

As you may know, American Heart Association (AHA) is the most recognized CPR certification nation wide. Most licensing requirements, insurance requirement, jobs, and many schools will only accept AHA and will not accept any other certification. 

As well, just because your school or job, etc. states that you need American Heart Association certification does not mean to take just any class by AHA and you'll meet the requirements. You must obtain the certification that meets your career, school or license specific requirements. 
Which class is required for you?  

American Heart Association offers: 

• BLS: Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers (advanced CPR for healthcare providers)
  
• CPR (basic adult CPR, you can add infant and children CPR to meet specific requirements)
  
• First Aid
  
• AED
  
• ACLS
• PALS

Or combo classes:

• CPR with AED (adult, or adult infant and child)
  
• CPR, AED &, FIrst Aid
  
• First Aid with AED
  
• CPR with First Aid

While the page "Our Audience" may give you an idea what class is right for you, ALWAYS contact your school, licensing board or HR department to find out for sure. 
Note: Mystic Lotus / Jody Gonzalez always adds AED to the CPR courses (No extra charge). 

For a list of AHA certification classes offered by Mystic Lotus Health Safety Success: Click here. 
For tuition information: Click here. 

Tips: 

1. Contact your licensing board, school, HR department, career specific insurance agent, etc to find out specifically which class is right for you. 
2. When searching for an American Heart Association Instructor or training center check with AHA to make sure that the instructor or training center are officially certified Instructors. You can verify that by going directly to the source: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/. There are instructors out there teaching AHA materials but they do not provide official AHA certification. If they are certified to teach AHA courses, they will have an official AHA Instructor certification card and will be listed with the American Heart Association.  
3. To find an American Heart Association class that meets your requirements: certification, location and schedule go to the American Heart Association web page as they have classes listed all over the country and world wide! http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/ . 

• You can also go to my class schedule tab to find classes listed in the Dallas, OR area. I am a certified American Heart Association Instructor for the classes listed above.  

FYI:

• Tuition is not set by AHA. Tuition is set by the Instructor or training center and is usually based on overhead costs such as rent, travel, licensing and education costs, insurance, and several other costs that the instructor or center may have as their overhead. 
• Books: If you borrow a book, or purchase a used book you can save money! Please make sure that your student workbook is the correct book for the class and the most current required book Students are required to bring their student workbooks to class. 
• Tuition does not guarantee that you will receive your certification, you must pass the class to become certified. 

With thousands of licensing boards for various careers, schools, work place HR departments, insurances and so on, it is not the responsibility of the AHA Instructor to tell you what is required for your specific career. It is however your responsibility. 

Save yourself time and money and make sure you are taking the right class for you. <3 


The best thing about taking an AHA certification class is more than a two year certification, 
YOU get to learn how to SAVE LIVES by learning CPR and or First Aid! 
TOGETHER WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE!