An unrestrained 37-year-old female is in cardiac arrest after striking a tree head-on at a high rate of speed. Assessment reveals her to have suffered massive blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen. The patient is quickly extricated from the vehicle and placed on a long board for immobilization. It is estimated that the patient has been in cardiac arrest for approximately 10 minutes, during which CPR was not performed. At this time, the EMT would:
A) withhold CPR and perform a focused trauma assessment.
B) perform CPR and contact medical command for permission to use the AED.
C) administer CPR for 2 minutes prior to applying the AED.
D) apply electrodes to the patient's chest and follow the AED's instructions.
Question 2
Five minutes after you assist a patient with her epinephrine auto-injector, the patient states that she feels much better and would like to refuse additional care and transport to the hospital. What statement would be most appropriate given the situation?
A) If you feel better now, there is probably no need to go to the hospital. I will get the refusal form for you to sign.
B) Once we help you take your epinephrine, the law requires that you be transported to a hospital for additional care.
C) Epinephrine can make you very sleepy. You can refuse but just make sure that someone is here to keep an eye on you.
D) The epinephrine will wear off in 10 to 20 minutes. Let's see how you are doing then before thinking about refusing transport.