He was choking, saved by his wife and the 118 operator

A 45-year-old Palermo resident in via Torrente d’Inverno owes his life to his wife and to the nurse in the 118 operations room. The 45-year-old man was eating some sausage when a bite went wrong and risked doing it to die of suffocation. The man was already cyanotic and was not breathing. The wife called for help. A heartfelt phone call for help to the 118 operations room.

On the other side of the phone, the nurse Daniele Di Dio who serves, both in the operations room, in the ambulance and on the helicopter rescue. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, the doctor explained over the phone how to do the famous Heimlich maneuver, a first aid technique that is used to remove an airway obstruction, which is an effective measure to quickly resolve many cases. suffocation.

The maneuver is named after the American doctor Henry Heimlich who first described it in 1974. The woman positioned herself behind her husband. He wrapped his arms around him and with his fists started pressing in the pit of his stomach. One, two, three four five shots. Eventually the husband expelled the piece of meat that was killing him. Everything took place in a few moments. «When we realize that life is linked to a few minutes, our nurses – says Marco Palmeri, resuscitator doctor in charge of the Palermo operations room – are trained to immediately give the so-called pre-arrival instructions. These consist of the telephone guide to life-saving techniques such as heart massage or airway unblocking maneuvers as happened in this case ». These techniques had already saved the life of a 50-year-old man victim of cardiac arrest in Campofelice di Roccella a few days ago. The nurse Giuseppe Civiletto of the 118 Palermo operations center performed that operation. The same one who in the past had even managed a birth by telephone driving the neighbor of the woman who was giving birth.