Hyperventilation

Question 1

What causes hyperventilation?

Answer 1

• Anxiety or fear
• Mental stress of sudden inflight emergency
• Turbulence can cause pax with fear of flying to hyperventilate

Question 2

What are the symptoms of hyperventilation?

Answer 2

• Dizziness and tingling in hand and feet
• Visual disturbances and hot and cold sensations
• Anxiety and loss of muscular coordination and impaired performance
• Increased heart rate due to muscle spasms

Question 3

How do you treat hyperventilation?

Answer 3

• Calm the sufferer down
• They may fall unconscious - this is fine
• Have the person breathe into a paper bag (rebreathing CO2 and raising acidity levels back to normal)

Question 4

What are the differences between hyperventilation and hypoxia?

Answer 4

• Early signs are similar, you should always assume hypoxic.
• If person is hypoxic and treated for hyperventilation, this exacerbates hypoxia.