Airway emergency - what would you have done.

While flying between Gallup N.M. and Winslow, A.Z., my passenger
pulled out a peppermint candy, handed it to me and retrieved another
for herself. I popped mine in my mouth, took a gulp from my water
bottle and went back to enjoying the view. Shortly thereafter, my
passenger starts gagging. When she had tossed the lozenge in her
mouth we hit a bit of turbulence and the candy tried to enter her
windpipe whole. A look of distress crossed her face as I quickly
realized what had happened. Her involuntary gag reflex went into
overdrive as she struggled to breathe. A feeling of helplessness
crossed over me as I realized we were 35 miles from the nearest
airport and it would be several minutes at best before we could land.
Even if I set the airplane down on I-40 it would be at least 5-6
minutes. That would lead to me risking the lives of others. With no
autopilot and while flying in rough air, an attempt at the Heimlich
maneuver would undoubtedly lead to an out of control aircraft over
mountainous terrain. What would you have done.
--
Joe Schneider
8437R
(Remove No Spam to Reply)
X-No-archive: yes

I suppose it depends on what type of aircraft, but in my Cherokee, it
is stable enough that you could do the Heimlich and still maintain
control of the plane.


On Sat, 15 May 2004 08:23:36 -0500, "JJS" jschneider@REMOVE
SOCKSpldi.net wrote:

While flying between Gallup N.M. and Winslow, A.Z., my passenger
pulled out a peppermint candy, handed it to me and retrieved another
for herself. I popped mine in my mouth, took a gulp from my water
bottle and went back to enjoying the view. Shortly thereafter, my
passenger starts gagging. When she had tossed the lozenge in her
mouth we hit a bit of turbulence and the candy tried to enter her
windpipe whole. A look of distress crossed her face as I quickly
realized what had happened. Her involuntary gag reflex went into
overdrive as she struggled to breathe. A feeling of helplessness
crossed over me as I realized we were 35 miles from the nearest
airport and it would be several minutes at best before we could land.
Even if I set the airplane down on I-40 it would be at least 5-6
minutes. That would lead to me risking the lives of others. With no
autopilot and while flying in rough air, an attempt at the Heimlich
maneuver would undoubtedly lead to an out of control aircraft over
mountainous terrain. What would you have done.

JJS wrote:

With no
autopilot and while flying in rough air, an attempt at the Heimlich
maneuver would undoubtedly lead to an out of control aircraft over
mountainous terrain. What would you have done.

It is possible for a person to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him or
herself. Assuming the passenger was not panicking, my first thought
would be to talk her through the maneuver.

--
Peter

Push her out and save yourself !

In article ,
"JJS" jschneider@REMOVE SOCKSpldi.net wrote:

While flying between Gallup N.M. and Winslow, A.Z., my passenger
pulled out a peppermint candy, handed it to me and retrieved another
for herself. I popped mine in my mouth, took a gulp from my water
bottle and went back to enjoying the view. Shortly thereafter, my
passenger starts gagging. When she had tossed the lozenge in her
mouth we hit a bit of turbulence and the candy tried to enter her
windpipe whole. A look of distress crossed her face as I quickly
realized what had happened. Her involuntary gag reflex went into
overdrive as she struggled to breathe. A feeling of helplessness
crossed over me as I realized we were 35 miles from the nearest
airport and it would be several minutes at best before we could land.
Even if I set the airplane down on I-40 it would be at least 5-6
minutes. That would lead to me risking the lives of others. With no
autopilot and while flying in rough air, an attempt at the Heimlich
maneuver would undoubtedly lead to an out of control aircraft over
mountainous terrain. What would you have done.

I would attempt to clear her airway...unless in severe turbulence you
shouldn't go "out of control".

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

In article , JJS
jschneider@REMOVE wrote:

While flying between Gallup N.M. and Winslow, A.Z., my passenger
pulled out a peppermint candy, handed it to me and retrieved another
for herself. I popped mine in my mouth, took a gulp from my water
bottle and went back to enjoying the view. Shortly thereafter, my
passenger starts gagging. When she had tossed the lozenge in her
mouth we hit a bit of turbulence and the candy tried to enter her
windpipe whole. A look of distress crossed her face as I quickly
realized what had happened. Her involuntary gag reflex went into
overdrive as she struggled to breathe. A feeling of helplessness
crossed over me as I realized we were 35 miles from the nearest
airport and it would be several minutes at best before we could land.
Even if I set the airplane down on I-40 it would be at least 5-6
minutes. That would lead to me risking the lives of others. With no
autopilot and while flying in rough air, an attempt at the Heimlich
maneuver would undoubtedly lead to an out of control aircraft over
mountainous terrain. What would you have done.

You tricycle gear pilots need to learn what your feet are for.
You have rudder peddles, use them!

"JJS" jschneider@REMOVE SOCKSpldi.net writes:

What would you have done.

What did you do?

I would have asked her 1) are you choking? and if she nodded yes I would
have asked 2) can you talk? and if she nodded no then I would have
intervened. OTherwise as long as shes moving air in SOME form or fashion
I would let HER focus on clearing the obstruction and ME focus on
setting down somewhere if it didnt immediately clear.

If intervention were warranted (assuming a front seat passenger), I
would have attempted one or two modified abdominal thrusts (with similar
direction and force as a heimlich). One or two thrusts will not cause a
total departure from controlled flight in my opinion, and it might
provide enough effect to dislodge the obstruction. Thrust or two..
verify the plane is in control.. thrust again.. etc.. if it doesnt clear
within a few moments of thrusting then its unlikely you will clear the
obstruction in the air with lay skills. At that point, its purely a
personal decision what do do next.

Dave, RN, EMTP, PPSEL

JJS wrote:

While flying between Gallup N.M. and Winslow, A.Z., my passenger
pulled out a peppermint candy, handed it to me and retrieved another
for herself. I popped mine in my mouth, took a gulp from my water
bottle and went back to enjoying the view. Shortly thereafter, my
passenger starts gagging. When she had tossed the lozenge in her
mouth we hit a bit of turbulence and the candy tried to enter her
windpipe whole. A look of distress crossed her face as I quickly
realized what had happened. Her involuntary gag reflex went into
overdrive as she struggled to breathe. A feeling of helplessness
crossed over me as I realized we were 35 miles from the nearest
airport and it would be several minutes at best before we could land.
Even if I set the airplane down on I-40 it would be at least 5-6
minutes. That would lead to me risking the lives of others. With no
autopilot and while flying in rough air, an attempt at the Heimlich
maneuver would undoubtedly lead to an out of control aircraft over
mountainous terrain. What would you have done.

EDR wrote:

You have rudder peddles, use them!

I don't have any of those, but I *do* have some rudder pedals.

George Patterson
I childproofed my house, but they *still* get in.

A little more background info:

First, without trying to impress anyone, I have been through various
industrial medic, first aid, and emergency first responder training
sessions repeated over and over for the last 25 years. At least one
recurrency training session has been done each year.

The air was very rough with at least moderate turbulence. The yokes
are so low in the Cherokee that it leaves very little room to twist
around in my seat.

EDR: I know the rudders are capable of lifting a wing. I've flown
two axis ultralights as well as tailwheel aircraft. I'd tried doing
this automatically. It wasn't enough to maintain control in the rough
air.

Nathan: I would imagine that my Cherokee is about the same as any
other Hershey bar Cherokee 140 when it comes to handling turbulence.
I have plus or minus 500 hours in this particular airplane. Believe
me when I say that there was no letting go of the yoke for more than a
few seconds before we were in a precarious attitude. I tried it
several times.

Zippo: For heavens sake, that would probably dislodge the candy when
she hit the ground alright, but she's the mother of my two daughters
and as pretty as the day I married her 24 years ago. It ain't
happening dude!

Peter: Excellent suggestion. She tried it. More than once. Didn't
work.

Bob: Here's what I did. I tried to keep her calm. I was very afraid
the candy might be sucked into a position that would totally occlude
her airway. As much as she tried, she could not dislodge the candy.
She could not talk but she was breathing, albeit strenuously. I hit
the nearest key on the GPS, said a prayer and headed directly to the
nearest airport. I monitored her closely and made suggestions, (none
of which worked). I tried hitting her on the back hard enough that I
knew she'd kill me if she lived through the ordeal. She tried sipping
small amounts from the water bottle, hoping that it would help melt
the candy. That didn't work. I intentionally lost altitude in an
attempt to shorten the time to touchdown. Her coughing and gagging
went on for what seemed like at least 10 minutes. I thought she might
vomit and inhale the vomitus. At the first sign of her starting to
have increased difficulty breathing or beginning to loose
consciousness I was going to set the airplane down on the interstate
or frontage road in record time. On loss of consciousness I might
have tried a finger sweep, but it would have been a last resort for
fear of pushing the candy deeper into her windpipe.

Finally, she coughed up the offending confectionary. Even after all
that time it was nearly it's full original size. Her throat was so
raw and sore that she was hoarse for two days. Several trips to the
ice cream store later, all was forgiven... never to be forgotten!

Seriously, this is something that I had never considered happening and
since then I've wondered about other airborne medical emergencies more
than ever. One thing is for sure. We will put some thought into any
snacks we eat in-flight from now on. If you fly with children, it
might be an even more important consideration.

"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...
"JJS" jschneider@REMOVE SOCKSpldi.net writes:

What would you have done.

What did you do?