Life threatening Situations Flashcards
What is the priority when conducting a telephone assessment?
Establish whether the patients condition is immediately life threatening
How long does it take for a brain cell to die with no oxygen?
3-5 minutes
What phrases might a caller use to indicate there is a problem with someone’s breathing or circulation?
‘He’s not breathing’
‘She’s collapsed on the floor and looks a funny colour’
‘They are wheezing’
What 3 things are essential to keep the body supplied with oxygen? ABC
Airway- a clear airway through which air containing oxygen can enter
Breathing- air enters the lungs when oxygen passes into the blood
Circulation- a pumping heart and enough blood to carry oxygen to the body
What can be a cause of blocked airways?
Choking, unconsciousness- tongue flop back and prevent air entering the airway
What can stop a person breathing?
heart attack, injury to the chest or head, drowning, severe allergy or poisoning by drugs or toxic gases
how can you tell if a person isn’t breathing?
- unconscious
- chest not moving
- no breathing sounds
- pale skin, grey or blue
What is shock?
A life threatening condition that occurs when the cardiovascular system fails for some reason and is unable to circulate adequate amounts of oxygen around the body.
What are symptoms of shock?
- person collapsed very weak and unable to stand. could be unconscious
- cold skin, pale skin
What are the causes of shock?
- Severe blood loss due to excessive bleeding from a wound
- heavy fluid loss; due to vomiting, diahorrea
- Failure of the heart to pump properly
- low blood sugar or lack of hormones
What happens if a persons ABCS are compromised?
They will need intervention of basic life support with CPR
What is an AED ( automatic external defibrillator) ?
A portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses certain life threatening problems with hearts rhythm and gives an electric shock
What is agonal breathing ?
Gasping, snorting, gurgling
If CPR is delayed what is the reduction in survival rate ? %
10-12%
What are survival rates of CPR ?
75%
What pattern is aganol breathing ?
Barely breathing, taking infrequent, noisy irregular breaths usually occur about every 10-15 seconds
What is the chain of survival?
A diagram which illustrates CPR being delivered outside of a hospital environment
Give examples of CPR being delivered outside of a hospital environment?
- family member
- relative
- by stander
How many steps is the chain of survival?
4 steps which if delivered effectively and in sequence can increase the chance of survival from an out of hospital cardiac arrest
How many steps is the chain of survival?
4 steps which if delivered effectively and in sequence can increase the chance of survival from an out of hospital cardiac arrest
What are the 4 steps for chain of survival ?
- Early recognition and call for help
- Early bystander CPR
- Early defibrillation
- Early advanced life support and standardised post resuscitation care
What is step 1?
A call made to ambulance service and ambulance despatched to help the patient and CPR can be started.
What is step 2?
Bystander starts performing cpr and this doubles or quadruples survival from an out of hospital cardiac arrest.
What percentage of people receive CPR from a by stander?
40%
what is step 3 ?
If a patient can receive a shock from an AED within 3-5 minutes after collapsing the survival rate can be 50-70%
What is step 4?
Advanced life support with airway management, drugs and the correction of casual factors may be needed if initial attempts are unsuccessful. Quality of treatment during post resuscitation phase affects long term outcome
