In a patient who becomes unresponsive after presenting with chest pain, what is the immediate action you should take?

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Multiple Choice

In a patient who becomes unresponsive after presenting with chest pain, what is the immediate action you should take?

When someone who has chest pain becomes unresponsive, assume cardiac arrest and start CPR right away. The top priority is to keep blood flowing to the brain and heart while help is on the way. Begin high‑quality chest compressions at about 100–120 compressions per minute with a depth around 2 inches (5 cm) in adults, allowing full chest recoil and minimizing pauses. Don’t delay CPR to check for a pulse or to determine breathing; those checks can waste crucial seconds and aren’t reliably informative in an unresponsive patient. Call for help and get an automated external defibrillator as soon as possible, and apply it when available, following its prompts. Airway management and rescue breaths are important, but they are addressed after you’ve started compressions.

When someone who has chest pain becomes unresponsive, assume cardiac arrest and start CPR right away. The top priority is to keep blood flowing to the brain and heart while help is on the way. Begin high‑quality chest compressions at about 100–120 compressions per minute with a depth around 2 inches (5 cm) in adults, allowing full chest recoil and minimizing pauses. Don’t delay CPR to check for a pulse or to determine breathing; those checks can waste crucial seconds and aren’t reliably informative in an unresponsive patient. Call for help and get an automated external defibrillator as soon as possible, and apply it when available, following its prompts. Airway management and rescue breaths are important, but they are addressed after you’ve started compressions.

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