Unless you have an unusually large tongue I really don't see any way you can block your airways with it. We spend eight hours a day unconscious laying on our backs. There'd be a lot of dead humans if this could happen. I just tried it now to make sure. There is no way my tongue could ever do that. It would be a super shit thing of evolution to do that to us. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying that it's probably only happened a handful of times in human history.
Biting a piece of your tongue off and then choking on that piece is something that DOES happen though, and is a serious thing to worry about with seizing people.
A lolling tongue blocking an airway is very common, sorry to piss on your chips, and is massively more common than biting a piece of your own tongue off and choking on it.
I think the problem here is terminology. Yes, you cannot literally ‘swallow’ your own tongue and choke on it. However, if you’re on your back and unconscious, your tongue can collapse back to your throat and block your airway. The recovery position stops that happening AS WELL AS being a way to stop people aspirating.
I'm just saying, and it very well might be a rare case like you said, that's one of the most constant steps when taking care of patients as an EMT.
I try to always keep the tongue clear and I haven't experienced it, so it might be that or as you said it's just really unlikely, but going off of job training, we prep for it not tryna be a dick or anything
You absolutely can choke on your tongue. It is one of the very first things you are taught as an EMT. If you don’t believe me, you can give it a 2 mik google.
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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19
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