Conscious patients are easier to determine airway and breathing status

When a patient is conscious and experiencing respiratory distress, they usually just tell anyone that will listen that they can’t breath. Nonetheless, clues abound for the respiratory distress patient:

• Rapid respiratory rate
• The patient lungs make sounds as they breathe
• The patient is unable to speak clearly or in complete sentences.

What the conscious respiratory distress patient needs when they are having problems breathing is oxygen. Administering high flow oxygen to any patient with difficulty breathing will result in immediate improvement in their condition.

As explained earlier, humans get oxygen out of the atmosphere by moving air through the pharynx, down the trachea, and into the lungs through the alveoli. The tiny blood vessels embedded on the alveoli (pulmonary capillaries) are small enough that oxygen will pass through the the very thin walls of the blood vessel and attach to a red blood cell. In the case of a patient with difficulty breathing, pure medical grade oxygen at 100% (no atmospheric air, only oxygen out of a tank) will create a powerful tendency to bind oxygen to EVERY available red blood cell that happens to pass through these pulmonary capillaries. This increased oxygen concentration in the blood will result in increased cellular respiration as each cell has an abundance of oxygen to utilize in their quest to burn glucose and fulfill their assigned role.