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St John Ambulance says hundreds of people die in England every year due to choking, but that number could be reduced with more public knowledge of how to perform abdominal thrusts and back blows.
Too many people are choking to death because bystanders don’t know how to intervene, experts have warned.
St John Ambulance is looking to raise awareness of two potentially life-saving skills everyone should seek to learn: back blows and abdominal thrusts.
The charity said around 300 people die in England every year due to a choking incident, but that number could be reduced with more public knowledge of how to help.
‘I was becoming more and more scared’
One woman described how her best friend saved her life after she choked on a fish bone in a pub in Totnes, Devon.
Leslie Sinoway, 54, from St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex, said she thought she was going to die when the bone became lodged in her throat.
Her friend Lucy Rhoades recognised something was wrong and delivered back blows, dislodging the bone.
Ms Sinoway recalled: “I got up and kept coughing, becoming more and more scared. Lucy noticed and got up. She asked me if I was OK, and I gestured that I wasn’t. That’s when she started giving me firm back blows.
“A fish bone flew out. I genuinely thought I was going to die. It was horrible.”