When is recovery position used

Notify me of new posts by email. What is the recovery position? When should you use the recovery position? When should you not use the recovery position? If you must open the airway of an unconscious person who has suffered these injuries, follow these steps: Place your hands on either side of their head. Gently life the jaw with your fingertips to open the airway.

How do you know if someone has a spinal injury? Though it may be difficult to know for sure, you should consider the possibility of a spinal injury if the person: has fallen from a great height was struck directly in the back is complaining of severe pain in their neck or back has lost control of their limbs, bowels, or bladder feels weak or is paralyzed How do you properly put someone in the recovery position?

First, lay the person on their back and kneel on the floor beside them. Hold it in place. Roll them to their side by pulling gently on the bent knee. Hold it in place. Use their bent leg as a lever to roll them toward you. How to perform the recovery position. Check Availability. Scroll down for images Find out how to use the recovery position by following the guide below.

Why is the recovery position used? The unconscious state leads to a loss of muscle control which renders the casualty unable to keep their airway open. Without intervention, the tongue falls to the back of the throat preventing air from reaching the lungs. As if the waters weren't murky enough, there's one more potential complication to consider. Patients with a form of heart disease known as congestive heart failure CHF do not tolerate the recovery position well at all.

These folks have problems keeping the blood pumping through the heart and when they lie on their sides, the heart gets more congested than usual. A third group of researchers compared 14 healthy volunteers with 14 CHF patients who were also volunteers. Patients with CHF didn't change too much when they went from sitting to prone or supine. On their sides, however, they had shortness of breath and lots of discomfort.

You might be more confused now than when you started this article, but that's the point. A lot of the treatments taught in first aid are based on theory rather than evidence. If it makes sense, that's how it's done. Sometimes, the theories are wrong. Sometimes, the evidence is misread and changes how first aid is performed, only to change back once more evidence is published.

CPR is a perfect example of the way first aid practice ebbs and flows with the combination of politics, fashion, and a growing body of evidence. Unlike CPR, the practice of putting unconscious patients in the recovery position hasn't changed in decades. That might be because aspiration isn't really all that common in most patients. In fact, aspiration is mostly a problem with elderly dementia patients who have a hard time swallowing. The recovery position is taught in a very precise way.

Some first aid textbooks—and more advanced texts as well—have the rescuer put the patient on his or her side with one leg bent and the head resting on an arm. The real world isn't precise.

Understanding what you need to accomplish is more important than how you do it. Keep stuff out of your patients' lungs. If that means you roll them almost all the way on their bellies, so be it.

Look for movement of the chest, listen for the sound of breathing and feel their breath on your cheek for up to 10 seconds and you should see at least 2 breaths. This will encourage their tongue to flop forward and allow the contents of their stomach to drain. Ideally, the casualty should not be on their front as this puts the weight of their body on their lungs and it is not as easy to breathe.

To avoid this, bend their knee to 90 degrees in order to support them on their side. Once they are in the recovery position, keep checking they are breathing by holding the back of your hand in front of their mouth.

It is important that the head is angled over sufficiently to allow any vomit to drain. Providing there is no possibility of a spinal injury, once on their side, tilt the head back slightly to further open the airway. The following method shows you how to put someone into the recovery position if you are on your own — even if you think they could have a spinal injury.

Use your hand which is closest to their head to hold their other hand and put this onto the side of their cheek to support the head and neck as you turn them. Pull their bent knee upwards into a running position to stabilise their body. Ensure they are over enough to make their tongue flop forward and allow the contents of their stomach to drain out. If you are not worried about a possible spinal injury, tilt their head back slightly to ensure the airway is properly open.