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Show Emergency VJIisi To Do in Case of Airway Stoppage BREATHING IS a very complex activity involving the brain, spinal cord, chest cage, ai r passages, and lungs. Breathing difficulties may be caused by injury or disease in any one of these areas. How can you tell if a person per-son is breathing adequately? 1. You will be able to see his chest and abdomen rise and fall as he breathes air in and out. 2. If you put your ear close to his mouth, you will be able to hear air moving in and out. 3. You will be able to feel the air moving in and out of his mouth and nose. BREATHING becomes inadequate in-adequate when the person is not taking in enough air to provide sufficient oxygen to the body. The most common signs of inadequate breathing are: 1. No respiratory movement move-ment of the chest or abdomen can be seen, and no air movement move-ment can be heard or felt. 2. The person is struggling to move air in and out of his lungs. The muscles on the front of his neck stand out prominently, but no air can be seen or heard moving in and out of the mouth or nose. 3. The person's breathing is very noisy or has a bubbling bubbl-ing sound. 4. The person is breathing breath-ing very slowly. 5. Cyanosis is present. Cyanosis is a grayish-blue grayish-blue discoloration of the skin and membranes around the lips, ears, nailbeds. and sometimes the whole body. THE FIRST STEP in restoring re-storing normal breathing is to position the head in such a way as to open the natural airway. When the neck is inflexion (that is, chin down on chest) and particularly when the person is on his back, the tongue falls back into the throat obstructing the airway. air-way. This is true even when the person is sitting up, in an unconscious state, and the head falls forward, the airway air-way can be closed off. It is a simple matter in these cases to clear the airway. air-way. Just tilt the head backward. back-ward. Place the heel of one hand on the persons forehead fore-head and the other hand under his neck. Then tilt the head backward, extending the neck. This usually opens the mouth automatically. A word of caution however. how-ever. Care should be taken to avoid a forceful tilting of the head in an infant or an unconscious un-conscious person as there may be a cervical spine injury. IF AN UNCONSCIOUS person per-son is making good respiration respira-tion efforts but there are signs that there is obstructed breathing (making a crowing or bubbling noise) you may just have to turn him to a face-down position allowing the saliva and mucus to drain out and the tongue to fall forward, for-ward, thus opening the airway. air-way. The single most important aspect of providingan airway is to make sure the head is tilted backward enough. It is quite common in young people to get foreign objects lodged in the throat thus blocking the airway. A child with something blocking the airway can be turned over the forearm of an adult and struck several times between the shoulder blades to dislodge the object. The head must be lower than the body so the object can fall out of the air passage. This method may also be effective with an adult. MANY PEOPLE with obstructions ob-structions will be able to obtain ob-tain enough oxygen if you can get them to relax and breath slowly. If the person becomes be-comes totally unable to breath, he will become cyanotic, cy-anotic, and then become unconscious. un-conscious. You may be able to save his life with the following actions: 1. Use your finger to attempt at-tempt to dislodge the foreign body. It is possible that your finger could lodge the object more firmly, or push it into the trachea, but these are acceptable risks that must be taken in this emergency. You may accidently push the object down into the esophagus past the opening of the airway, in which case the person will be able to resume re-sume breathing. 2. If the airway is not cleared, try to force air into it by using mouth-to-mouth ventilation. 3. If necessary, quickly place the person in a head-down head-down position over the edge of a bed or chair and hit him on his back between the shoulder blades. This is a true emergency, and emergency emer-gency help should be called, and told quickly the condition of the person. WHILE THE AMBULANCE is getting to you remember this rule. NEVER give up your effort to dislodge the object. Some oxygen may be forced into the person, and it may be enough to keep him alive until medical help can be obtained. Don't panic. Repeat the emergency steps above, but don't give up and stop trying. Next, injuries to chest and abdomen. Puncture wounds to these areas and other parts of the body. |