An ALS ambulance is responding to a possible suicide attempt. Upon arrival, the crew encounters distraught parents who state they just discovered their teenage daughter hanging in the garage. After cutting the rope and lowering this female to the ground, the ALS team finds her still warm but in cardiac arrest. Her pupils are fixed and dilated and the cardiac monitor reveals pulseless electrical activity. What should they do now?

You and your paramedic partner are preparing to move an obese female patient from the floor to your stretcher. Which of the following descriptions would you recommend when lifting this patient?

You are called to a baseball game where a 72-year-old male has been struck in the upper arm by a foul ball. The patient is alert and oriented to person, place and time and you observe swelling occurring in the area where he was struck. What other specific assessments should you perform regarding this injury?

You are called to transport a 21-year-old sickle cell anemia patient from a small rural hospital to an urban shock trauma center for an acute crisis he is experiencing. The patient has oxygen, IV and cardiac monitor in place. During transit, how will the paramedics know if the patient’s crisis is worsening?

You are called to a poorly maintained home for an unresponsive 5-year-old and your initial assessment reveals a patient who appears emaciated and looks more like a 3-year-old. Your assessment of the patient indicates no pertinent medical history, the blood pressure is 60/40, respirations are 14 and shallow, pulse is 140, blood sugar is 78 and pulse oximetry readings are unobtainable. After providing ventilatory support, which of the following should you administer next?

Your patient is a 12-year-old male who was struck in the right temporal area with a baseball that was hit off a bat during a game. Bystanders state the boy had a loss of consciousness and would not wake up for 3 minutes after the injury. The patient is alert on your arrival. You note that is becoming drowsy during your assessment and catch him falling asleep several times. He has a strong radial pulse of 50, a blood pressure of 160/90, and a respiratory rate of 10. The patient becomes unconscious as you are loading him into the ambulance. Which of the following best describes this patient’s condition?

While treating a patient with leukemia, the most important principle is?

Your patient complains of coughing up blood. He is a new resident at a homeless shelter and the staff says he has trouble sleeping as well as trouble breathing. His skin is cool and diaphoretic.  What does this information tell you?

You are dispatched to the scene of a 21-year-old male with an isolated dislocation of the left elbow. His vital signs are stable however, he has no distal pulse in his left arm and the left lower arm is turning cyanotic. You are able to adjust the angle of the arm bringing the wrist to the center of the chest but circulation is still compromised. How should you best proceed with this situation?

You are treating a 4-year-old patient who is unresponsive. The patient’s pulse corresponds with the monitor (shown below), his respiratory rate is 24, and his blood pressure is 60/40. Which of the following assessments would be the most critical in this patient?