St John's Ambulance does first aid training here in Melbourne. They're basically a volunteer group who work alongside the professional paramedics; St John's gen

St John's Ambulance does first aid training here in Melbourne. They're basically a volunteer group who work alongside the professional paramedics; St John's generally does events like concerts and festivals, while the professionals do the usual emergency stuff. St John's also do a lot of first aid training here (the above examples come from a course of theirs). The side chest compressions tend not to break ribs - normal CPR compressions do, but CPR needs to squish the heart - a smaller, tougher organ than the lungs. The heimlich also has to be done in an upright position, which makes it more awkward to do if you're not physically strong; it's all bicep strength, and you can't use your own weight to your advantage. Chest thrusts are also not complicated by a patient who is obese or pregnant. Just googling around, found some research arguing for (normal) chest compressions over heimlich, from 2000: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10767497 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10767497