Overview
Shortness of breath can be caused due to various potential reasons and the associated treatment techniques can greatly vary based on these causes. Though, in some extreme cases, you may not have any other options apart from dialing an emergency helpline or directly bring the patient under the surveillance of a physician.
First Aid Tips for Treating Shortness of Breath : Here’s a summarized guideline or useful first aid tips for treating such conditions. These tips will come extremely useful to assist a patient who’s suffering from Shortness of Breath before taking the victim to a nearby hospital. Obviously, if the condition gets worse, then you have to call an ambulance & admit the patient to a nursing home or a hospital at the earliest. But before that, you can try these tips :
Ask The Victim To Rest : It’s quite natural that you exhaust the maximum energy i.e. more oxygen when you practice heavy workouts or exercise at a gym. But, for a patient who already has symptoms of Shortness of Breath, he/she should not involve in such jobs or tasks that require expending more oxygen. Otherwise, they’ll feel more troubles while breathing. Hence, it’s ideal for them to take a break, take a deep breath, and rest accordingly.
Advise The Victim To Use Any Comfortable Posture : The patients can use any particular posture while makes them feeling more comfortable. They can sit, stand, or lay down as per their preferences. Additionally, it’s true that there are various postures which offer maximum airflow into a human body like “tripod position” or sitting at the edge of a bed or a chair, then leaning forward, and propping up the elbows or hands on your knees. This particular sitting posture can be great for the patients suffering from Shortness of Breath.
Dial 911 : If the above two options don’t work for a patient, then you should not waste any more time & immediately dial 911. Shortness of Breath often causes dangerous health risks including a heart attack, life-threating position or a sudden lung problem etc. In these cases, it’s absolutely meaningful to dial 911 to save the victims & give them a new life. However, you’ve to take your judgment wisely before calling the helpline.
Use Oxygen : This technique is useful only for some special cases where the victims are facing chronic lung problems. Such patients generally use the oxygen as per the recommendation of an experienced doctor. It’s also true that using too much much oxygen for long can cause other health hazards. But when a patient is suddenly experiencing short of breath, he/she can take a chance of using excess oxygen to overcome the situation.
Treat The Cause From Its Root : As it’s mentioned earlier that Shortness of Breath can be caused due to various probable reasons and among those, some reasons can be cured by simple treatments. For example, Asthma patients can use various tools & useful drugs to overcome the sudden causes of Shortness of Breath. Heart patients should visit the hospitals & victims of chronic lung infections may need to consult a doctor for an effective treatment.
Related Video On Shortness of Breath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjFyf05T0U