Trouble Breathing Card

Hello. Let's talk about the trouble breathing EMD card that you have now. There are many things that cause trouble breathing and it will be helpful to you if you have a little bit of understanding of some of the causes that are out there. First, as with many of the things that we have, we're going to do our normal no, no go criteria right up front because again, if it's cardiac arrest, we want to go straight into that. But assuming you pass the no, no go and we're still dealing with the trouble breathing, the next thing we want to roll out is choking. So go down your choking scenario. But let's say that all that clears up and now you're just left with somebody who's short of breath. There are a number of things that you're going to want to start thinking that this could be. Infections is a big one. Obviously, we're in the middle of a worldwide pandemic with COVID 19, so we're all thinking about COVID but they're straightforward. Pneumonia, bronchitis, things like that. So infectious disease is certainly one of them. Heart disease is one of them. Congestive heart failure especially. In fact, if you ask someone if they've ever had this before, that's a useful question. Something I ask in the emergency department, has this ever happened to you before? And they say yes. You say, what was it? They're going to give you the answer. They say, well, I felt like this last time I had congestive heart failure. COPD or emphysema or chronic lung disease from smokers is another common one. Asthma is a common one. Obviously those last two, the COPD and asthma, they may have treatments at home that they've been prescribed by their docs to use, such as inhalers, which you can advise them to go ahead and take some extra doses of their inhalers prior to arrival of the crew. So having that little basic understanding of what could potentially cause shortness of breath in these folks is certainly useful. One caution, though, anxiety does cause shortness of breath, but that's not something we should really diagnose over the phone. Anxiety is something you diagnose somebody after you're sure they don't have any other life threats. And that's clearly not a dispatcher level type thing. That is something that we probably determine at the emergency department after we're sure the heart's okay, their lungs are okay, they, et cetera. Thanks again for watching.