What should Nurse Mavie do first if a patient is choking on food?

Determine if the patient can make any verbal sounds.

When a person is choking on food. the first intervention is to determine if the person can speak because the next intervention will depend on if it is a partial or total airway obstruction. With a partial airway obstruction. the person will be able to make sounds because some air can pass from the lungs through the vocal chords. In this situation the persons own efforts open parentheses gagging and coughing) should be allowed to clear the airway. With a total airway obstruction. the person will not be able to make a sound because the airway is blocked and the nurse should immediately initiate the abdominal thrust maneuver (Heimlich maneuver). Thrusts to the xiphoid process may cause a fracture that may result in a pneumothorax (option 1).