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apauleon · Mar 24, 2009, 04:40 PM

You are doing your rounds and notice that a patient is going into respitory distress, what do you do?

Ren6 · Mar 24, 2009, 04:58 PM

I would do my own homework. If you don't, this patient could die. Also, it's spelled "respiratory".

aussie_girl · Oct 1, 2009, 04:47 PM

Get some help, put some oxygen on them, sit them upright to facilitate lung expansion, take a set of obs to see their respiratory and cardiac functioning, do an emergency call if necessary (we call them met calls in australia), do an ECG if you can to rule out cardiac causes such as an MI, a doctor may order some respiratory dilators or adrenaline, if it is cardiac related, they may need some GTN, you could do an ABG if you have the equipment and time available. If they go unconscious, start CPR. The most important thing is to maintain their airway - i.e. head tilt, jaw support, or even inserting an artificial airway, it will all depend upon the severity of the distress.

You need to rule out a lot of things. It could be respiratory related i.e.. Chronic respiratory disease (copd, asthma, etc), they could be having an allergic/anaphylactic reaction which is causing an airway obstruction, they could have a mechanical obstruction i.e. a foreign object such as food, they may be having a heart attack, they could have overexerted themselves i.e. walking to the bathroom and back, they could have a head injury or tumour (but that wouldn't be as acute in onset). There are many, many things that could cause respiratory distress.

Your immediate concern would be maintaining the airway, and then you would begin ruling out causes so that you can effectively treat the problem on the longer term or prevent it happening again

aussie_girl · Oct 1, 2009, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by aussie_girl

get some help, put some oxygen on them, sit them upright to facilitate lung expansion, take a set of obs to see their respiratory and cardiac functioning, do an emergency call if necessary (we call them met calls in australia), do an ECG if you can to rule out cardiac causes such as an MI, a doctor may order some respiratory dilators or adrenaline, if it is cardiac related, they may need some GTN, you could do an ABG if you have the equipment and time available. if they go unconscious, start CPR. the most important thing is to maintain their airway - ie head tilt, jaw support, or even inserting an artificial airway, it will all depend upon the severity of the distress.

you need to rule out a lot of things. it could be respiratory related ie. chronic respiratory disease (copd, asthma, etc), they could be having an allergic/anaphylactic reaction which is causing an airway obstruction, they could have a mechanical obstruction ie a foreign object such as food, they may be having a heart attack, they could have overexerted themself ie walking to the bathroom and back, they could have a head injury or tumour (but that wouldn't be as acute in onset). there are many, many things that could cause respiratory distress.

your immediate concern would be maintaining the airway, and then you would begin ruling out causes so that you can effectively treat the problem on the longer term or prevent it happening again

They could also have a pneumothorax.