When your patient says they can't breath or they are having a harder time breathing than usual there are a multitude of different things that can be going on with your patient. This is why we do a proper patient assessment, vital signs and gain a medical history to help us clue in to what is causing this difficulty breathing to occur.

In this skit, we see a new paramedic student who doesn't know where to start with their assessment, the mnemonic HORID (shoutout to CME4LIFE, LLC) always us to look for these 5 "worst causes of difficulty breathing" during our initial assessment.

Heart (CHF vs ACS) Do an EKG!
Obstruction (Is stridor present, any airway obstructions?)
Reactive (Asthma, Anaphylaxis, COPD) Any wheezing?
Infection (Pneumonia for example) Any cough?
Death (Pulmonary embolism/pneumothorax) Look for risk factors!

Use this mnemonic on your next difficulty breathing call, and yes HORID is spelled wrong for a reason.

Be great,

Evan, The Paramedic Coach

#medical #ems #paramedics

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