I read yesterday on one of the online support groups that someone had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on her choking mother (on Christmas Day) and broke her mother's rib in the process. I was curious how common that was (not very). While I was looking into that question, I ran across this pretty good 2-minute video on how to perform the heimlich maneuver on someone else and on yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEIiEAn7b-U

While watching the video, I wondered why you would perform CPR on a choking person who is non-responsive. Someone answered this in the comments section:

"You perform CPR on an unresponsive & non breathing patient who was choking for two reasons.

- Performing CPR will actually help dislodge the item as the compressions force air out of the throat.

- If the person is unresponsive & not breathing then there are in serious trouble and will require CPR to keep there brain oxygenated, until you can recussitate them with a defib."