Nov

20

Gurgaon techie chokes to death during pastry-eating contest

November 20, 2008 posted by indiatime |

Yesterday in Gurgaon, 22-year old Saurav Sabbarwal, an engineer with Nokia Siemens Networking, died while participating in a pastry-eating contest at the cafeteria in his office. Feeling unwell after having eaten a lot of patries, he went to the washroom, but didn’t come back for a long time. His colleagues found him unconscious, and the hospital authorities declared him dead on arrival (DOA). The doctors at the hospital did try to resuscitate Saurav, but they found his windpipe choked with food and were unable to revive him. Saurav’s grief-stricken father, a manager at the Punjab National Bank has alleged carelessness on part of the company and the police have currently registered Saurav’s death as an unnatural death, qualifying it under Section 174 of the criminal code.

Now, it is not that uncommon to have a piece of food stuck in one’s windpipe. Usually when such a thing happens, our body reacts with coughing. If the food particle is large enough however, that can lead to a choking.

How do you tell if somebody is choking?
1. the person is suddenly unable to speak
2. the face turns blue
3. breathing becomes labored or noisy
4. the person suddenly faints

Should you try to help? Or should you just wait for the doctor to arrive?
Choking is serious business. By blocking a person’s breathing, it can block oxygen supply to the brain. Without oxygen, human brain cannot survive for more than 4-5 minutes. Any further delay in oxygen supply can trigger the brain cells to die. This can lead to unconsciousness, coma and eventual death.

So, it is very, very important that the person get immediate help.

What can you do?

Call emergency services ASAP:
- Have someone call the emergency service immediately.

Ask someone to check for a trained person:
Have someone check if there’s a trained person around who can help - a doctor, a nurse, a cop, a firefighter, a lifeguard…

Encourage to cough:
If the person is still conscious, ask the person if they can cough and encourage them to do so

Slap the person’s back:
- Give a few (about 5-15) backslaps in the middle of upper back region (with the heel of your palm, give hard slaps to the victim’s upper back)

Use Heimlich Maneuver (abdominal thrusts):
- Stand behind the person
- Put your hands around the person’s abdomen a little above the bellybutton (not on the ribcage)
- Lock your hands and give a few upward squeezes/thrusts
- Take special precautions if the choking victim is a small child.

In Saurav Sabbarwal’s case, by the time his colleagues suspected something was amiss, it was already too late for him, since it was a lot longer than the usual 4-5 minutes he could have survived without oxygen, assuming a complete blockage of his windpipe. Most companies in western nations typically train their employees in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques and Heimlich Maneuvers, etc. It is not clear if Saurav’s company had gone through such an exercise for its employees. The news reports do not mention anyone attempting to revive him either. Assuming someone had called the emergency services immediately, it would still have taken a long time for such help to come through a busy metro’s traffic. That is precisely why it is imperative that people at the workplace are properly trained to employ life-saving techniques.

Having said that, I cannot help but recall an incident narrated by a famous cardiologist in Mumbai. In his memoirs about his medical practice, he mentions about a married couple he knew, who visited the husband’s brother in California and were astonished to see this brother save their father’s life with a few quick thumps over his chest. The couple returned to India, impressed and inspired with the lifesaving chest thumping technique. A few days later, their son came home after a game of cricket with his friends. He was in a bit of pain, hit in the chest by a bumper ball from a fast bowler of the opposing team. He didn’t want his parents to worry about it, so when his parents asked why he looked unwell, he just told them that his chest hurt. Before he knew, his parents were all over him, thumping his chest, his father giving him a mouth-to-mouth and his mother punching him in the chest. The parents took him to this cardiologist who found the distraught boy wiping off his father’s wet kisses, with a few ribs broken by his mom’s punches.

universal choking signIn conclusion, it helps to be properly trained in these life-saving techniques. And you never know when you may need to use them. In Saurav’s case, quick action on behalf of any of his colleagues could have saved his life, had they noticed something was drastically wrong with him. That’s why everyone needs to know this universal choking sign. You may need to use it yourself or you may need to know if someone else is using it.


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4 Comments so far

  1. Costly Cake « IT & ITES Union on November 20, 2008 4:47 pm

    [...] http://www.indiatime.com/2008/11/20/gurgaon-techie-chokes-to-death-during-pastry-eating-contest/ [...]

  2. Vinoy on November 20, 2008 6:22 pm

    But what’s the point in organizing or participating in such foolish exercises?

  3. shekhar on November 20, 2008 6:43 pm

    Vinoy is correct. The engineers were in their workplace. That is not a place to have eating contests. There are millions waiting for good jobs and it is painful to see how some who have those opprtunities are wasting it.

  4. Devender Parmar on November 22, 2008 10:46 pm

    Yes, he should have taken express permission from the concerned authorities and then with due grants from the police, organized a pastry-eating contest at his residence.

    :-|

    Stop acting Indian. The article is primarily concerned with how to aid somebody who could need help in case his/her windpipe was blocked. Don’t tell me that you’ve never done somebody stupid like that with friends? Ever? Never? Well, then congratulations on your virginity and may you stay that way all your life.

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