Choking

A blocked airway becomes life-threatening within minutes.

Judge first

• If they can cough or speak — let them keep coughing. Coughing it out themselves is better than being hit on the back.
• If they can't make a sound, clutch their throat, or turn blue — act immediately and call 119 as well.

Adults and children (conscious)

1. Call 119 or tell someone beside you to.
2. Back blows — from behind, lean them forwards and strike five times firmly between the shoulder blades with the heel of your hand.
3. Abdominal thrusts (Heimlich) — from behind, place a fist above the navel and below the ribs, grasp it with your other hand, and pull sharply inwards and upwards five times.
4. Alternate five and five until it comes out.
5. If they lose consciousness, lay them down and start CPR. See cpr.

Infants under one

1. Lay them face-down along your forearm with the head lower than the body.
2. Give five back blows between the shoulder blades with your palm.
3. Turn them over and give five chest thrusts with two fingers on the centre of the chest.
4. Alternate and call 119.
5. Only remove what you can see. Blind finger sweeps push it deeper.

For pregnant or larger people

Use chest thrusts (lower breastbone) instead of abdominal thrusts.

Prevention

• Be careful giving children nuts, grapes, tteok (rice cake) and jelly. Cut them small.
• Cut tteok and meat small for older people and let them eat slowly. Accidents cluster around holidays.
• Don't let anyone laugh or run with food in their mouth.

Where to go

• 119 emergency (multilingual interpretation available)
• Korean Red Cross and fire stations (first aid training)
• 1577-1366 · 1345 interpretation

Questions people ask

Won't back blows push it further in? When someone cannot even cough, action is needed. Leaning them forwards first is what matters.

Can I hook it out with my finger? Only what you can see. A blind sweep pushes it deeper.

I'm choking alone. Press your abdomen hard against a chair back or table edge to perform thrusts on yourself. Then call 119.

Do I still need hospital after it comes out? Yes. The airway may be damaged or fragments may remain. Children especially must be seen.

Take care

Tteok (rice cake) is a leading cause of choking deaths in Korea. For older people and children especially, cut it small and stay with them while they eat. Accidents concentrate around the holidays.

Related

cpr · first-aid-basics · call-119 · pediatric-hospital

Source

National Fire Agency www.nfa.go.kr / As of 2026-08