Paramedic Exam EMT Flashcards

A patient presents with altered mental status, flushed dry skin, and a temperature of 41.2°C (106.2°F) after working outdoors. What is the priority field treatment?

Answer: Begin rapid active cooling with cold packs to groin, axillae, and neck

Classic heatstroke with hot, dry skin requires immediate aggressive cooling targeting the body's major blood vessel clusters to lower the core temperature rapidly.

What is the correct compression-to-ventilation ratio when two trained rescuers perform CPR on an adult patient WITHOUT an advanced airway in place?

Answer: 30:2

AHA guidelines specify a 30:2 compression-to-ventilation ratio for two-rescuer adult CPR without an advanced airway.

Which of the following signs differentiates neurogenic shock from hypovolemic shock?

Answer: Bradycardia and warm flushed skin below the level of injury

Neurogenic shock results from loss of sympathetic tone below the spinal cord injury, causing vasodilation (warm, flushed skin) and bradycardia — the opposite of hypovolemic shock.

A patient is experiencing a tonic-clonic seizure lasting more than 5 minutes. After establishing IV access, which drug is the first-line treatment?

Answer: Lorazepam 4 mg IV

Benzodiazepines such as lorazepam are first-line treatment for status epilepticus, providing rapid seizure termination by enhancing GABA activity.

A 28-year-old male was found unresponsive after a heroin overdose. He is breathing 6 times per minute with pinpoint pupils. After naloxone administration, he becomes agitated and tries to leave. What is the concern?

Answer: The heroin may outlast the naloxone, causing re-narcotization

Naloxone has a shorter half-life (30–90 min) than most opioids, so patients can relapse into sedation and respiratory depression after the naloxone wears off.

A patient presents with severe dyspnea, absent breath sounds on the right, and tracheal deviation to the left 30 minutes after a stab wound to the right chest. Vital signs: BP 70/40, HR 130. What is the immediate intervention?

Answer: Perform needle decompression on the right at the 2nd ICS, MCL

Signs of tension pneumothorax (absent breath sounds, tracheal deviation away, hemodynamic instability) following penetrating chest trauma require immediate needle decompression on the affected side.

When administering adenosine for stable SVT, why must it be given as a rapid IV push followed immediately by a saline flush?

Answer: Because its half-life is less than 10 seconds and it must reach the heart quickly

Adenosine's extremely short half-life (less than 10 seconds) requires rapid bolus injection with immediate flush to deliver the drug to the AV node before it is metabolized.