I performed the Heimlich Maneuver Monday evening — on myself.
Lurking in the “string beef” from Trader Joe’s I had slung on top of some lettuce (therefore making a “salad”) was a chunk the size of a tennis ball that managed to lodge in my throat. I drank water, gagged, tried to cough, got more and more panicked, and wondered if I should call 911 (wouldn’t get here in time) or run to the neighbors (how embarrassing but passing out would be, too). I couldn’t breathe.
I remembered that people die this situation. I’d seen it in the movies.
Nothing was working, so I made a fist and put under it my ribs, then hit it reallyhard with the other fist, and lo, the hideous thing popped out.
Realizing what could have happened, I broke down in tears of relief, vowing to become a vegetarian, to cut my food in tiny pieces, to be a better person, etc. Both kitties sat at my feet, concerned in their way. Research nerd that I am, I went to the computer and learned that you could choke to death in four minutes!
However, I also learned this, which I mentally filed in my Miracle Department: “It only takes about 1½ seconds for your heart to spread blood over a lung area of half a standard tennis court and then shunt it back into circulation. This happens about 100,000 times every day, usually totally automatically.”
Among the things that happen automatically in our bodies, perhaps none is more basic and miraculous than breathing. Our faith concurs, and says that that the source of our breath is the Creator. In Genesis, by breathing into the nostrils of Adam and Eve, God gives them life. Jesus breathes on the disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit. We die when breath leaves our bodies.
Breath is a revelation of God, and a connection with God.
When something as innocuous as barbequed beef can block our airways and deny us breath, there are other things that also block our connection with the Sacred: fear, anxiety, unrestricted criticism, inattention, laziness, self-pity.
Your list?
Eastern religious practices such as yoga begin with awareness of the breath. Interesting, we have to be taught this. There is even a saying in yoga, “When you can control your breath, you can control everything.”
America’s most joyful and exuberant poet, Walt Whitman, wrote:
To breath the air, how delicious!
To speak, to walk, to seize something by the hand!
To be this incredible God I am!
Breath: as with so many gifts from God, especially precious when you might lose it.
Deep breath now. Exhale slowly. Give thanks. Don’t wait until your equivalent of the barbequed beef forces the issue.
See you in church.
Barbara
P.S. Turns out that Henry Heimlich was a character. He first published his views about the maneuver in a June 1974 informal article in “Emergency Medicine” entitled, “Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary”. He also has been criticized for trying to treat HIV and cancer with “malarial parasite injections.”
