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    ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest?

    257930.pdf (873.5Kb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Riou, Marine
    Ball, Stephen
    Williams, Teresa
    Whiteside, A.
    Cameron, P.
    Fatovich, D.
    Perkins, G.
    Smith, K.
    Bray, J.
    Inoue, Madoka
    O'Halloran, Kay
    Bailey, P.
    Brink, D.
    Finn, J.
    Date
    2018
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Riou, M. and Ball, S. and Williams, T. and Whiteside, A. and Cameron, P. and Fatovich, D. and Perkins, G. et al. 2018. ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? Resuscitation. 122: pp. 92-98.
    Source Title
    Resuscitation
    DOI
    10.1016/j.resuscitation.2017.11.058
    ISSN
    0300-9572
    School
    School of Nursing and Midwifery
    Funding and Sponsorship
    http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1076949
    http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1029983
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59567
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Background: In emergency ambulance calls, agonal breathing remains a barrier to the recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and rapid dispatch. We aimed to explore whether the language used by callers to describe breathing had an impact on call-taker recognition of agonal breathing and hence cardiac arrest. Methods: We analysed 176 calls of paramedic-confirmed OHCA, stratified by recognition of OHCA (89 cases recognised, 87 cases not recognised). We investigated the linguistic features of callers’ response to the question “is s/he breathing?” and examined the impact on subsequent coding by call-takers. Results: Among all cases (recognised and non-recognised), 64% (113/176) of callers said that the patients were breathing (yes-answers). We identified two categories of yes-answers: 56% (63/113) were plain answers, confirming that the patient was breathing (“he's breathing”); and 44% (50/113) were qualified answers, containing additional information (“yes but gasping”). Qualified yes-answers were suggestive of agonal breathing. Yet these answers were often not pursued and most (32/50) of these calls were not recognised as OHCA at dispatch. Conclusion: There is potential for improved recognition of agonal breathing if call-takers are trained to be alert to any qualification following a confirmation that the patient is breathing.

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