How should you provide first aid to a victim of an accident who still has a pulse, but is not breathing?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
C. I should clear the respiratory tract, and if this is ineffective, commence resuscitation.
Explanation
In the photo, two fingers placed on a wrist are checking the pulse. When an accident victim has a pulse you can feel but is not breathing, you open the airway, and if breathing does not return, you start CPR - answer C.
In an unconscious person, the relaxed tongue often falls back and blocks the throat, so the first step is to tilt the head back and lift the jaw. Then for 10 seconds you look, listen and feel whether the casualty is breathing normally. If not, you call for help and start CPR: 30 chest compressions and 2 rescue breaths. The pulse is difficult to assess for a person without training, and a heart without oxygen supply quickly stops working, so you treat a lack of normal breathing as cardiac arrest. "Do not touch" (answer A) means leaving the victim to certain death. Heart massage without opening the airway (answer B) skips the simplest action, which by itself can restore breathing.
Legal basis: Art. 44 para. 2 point 1 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym); Art. 162 § 1 of the Criminal Code