Adult Basic Life Support Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global epidemic, has been spreading rapidly all over the world since December 2019. Contamination can be caused by the penetration of respiratory droplets into the mouth, nose or eyes of people or by contact of the hands with the mouth, nose or eyes after touching surfaces where respiratory droplets adhere. Shortness of breath, high fever, dry cough, and loss of the sense of taste and smell are common symptoms in patients. Basic life support applied in cardiac arrest increases the survival chance of these patient. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic period, it is known that patients, rescuers and healthcare workers are at risk during basic life support applications due to the contagiousness of the virus. Due to all of these, basic life support guidelines have been updated and some applications that emphasize the safety of rescuers have been made. In this study, changes for basic life support to be applied in patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 or with high suspicion of COVID-19 who developed cardiac arrest were discussed.