What is the best way to open the airway of an unresponsive victim with no suspected neck injury?

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Use the primary survey to quickly assess the situation and check the casualty for injuries or conditions that could be immediately life threatening. Find out what to do.

When responding to an emergency, it is important to recognise the emotional and physical needs of everyone involved, including your own.

If an adult is unresponsive and not breathing normally, you need to call 999 or 112 for emergency help and start CPR straight away. Learn what to do.

What is the best way to open the airway of an unresponsive victim with no suspected neck injury?

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Summary

Read the full fact sheet

  • Always call triple zero (000) in an emergency. This fact sheet is not a substitute for proper CPR training by an accredited organisation.
  • Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) combines rescue breathing (mouth-to-mouth) and chest compressions to temporarily pump enough blood to the brain until specialised treatment is available.
  • Chest compressions are the priority in CPR. If you can't to do rescue breathing (mouth-to-mouth) chest compressions alone may still be life-saving. Try to minimise interruptions to chest compressions until help arrives.
  • CPR is a life-saving skill that everyone should learn. Courses are available.
  • CPR works on the principle of 30 chest compressions and 2 breaths of rescue breathing (mouth-to-mouth) – known as 30:2).
  • Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) can be used by anyone in an emergency and are easy to use. Voice prompts guide you through what to do.
  • The steps involved in CPR are known as DRSABCD (or ‘doctors ABCD’).

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What is the best way to open the airway of an unresponsive victim with no suspected neck injury?

What is the best way to open the airway of an unresponsive victim with no suspected neck injury?

This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:

What is the best way to open the airway of an unresponsive victim with no suspected neck injury?

What is the best way to open the airway of an unresponsive victim with no suspected neck injury?

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What is the best way to open the airway of an unresponsive victim with a suspected neck injury?

If you think the person may have a spinal injury, place your hands on either side of their head and use your fingertips to gently lift the angle of the jaw forward and upwards, without moving the head, to open the airway. Take care not to move the person's neck. But opening the airway takes priority over a neck injury.

How do you open the airway of an unresponsive victim who has no injuries?

1. Check their breathing by tilting their head back and looking and feeling for breaths. When a person is unresponsive, their muscles relax and their tongue can block their airway so they can no longer breathe. Tilting their head back opens the airway by pulling the tongue forward.

What is the best method to open and maintain an airway in an unresponsive patient with a suspected spinal injury?

If you think a person may have a spinal injury, do not attempt to move them until the emergency services reach you. If it's necessary to open their airway, place your hands on either side of their head and gently lift their jaw with your fingertips to open the airway. Take care not to move their neck.

What is the typical method for opening an unconscious victim's airway?

Open the person's airway. Lift up the chin gently with one hand while pushing down on the forehead with the other to tilt the head back. (Do not try to open the airway using a jaw thrust for injured victims. Be sure to employ this head tilt-chin lift for all victims, even if the person is injured.)