An emergency procedure or technique that helps someone who is choking because something is caught in the trachea: One form of a Heimlich maneuver employs a firm upward thrust just below the rib cage to force air from the lungs which ejects or dislodges food or any other foreign object from the throat.

When a person is alone and experiences an airway obstruction that is caused by a foreign body, he or she can make a fist with one hand and place it against the area between the navel and the rib cage.

Then hold the fist with the free hand and press in with quick forceful upward thrusts until whatever is causing the choking in the throat is gone.

This technique is named after Dr. Henry Jay Heimlich, a U.S. thoracic surgeon, who developed this procedure.

Jill told her brother that while she was at a restaurant, she started to choke on some food which was stuck in her throat and a man helped her by using a Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the food so she could breathe properly again.