← Chapter 12
Maternal-Newborn & Paediatric Nursing · Chapter 12

Croup, Epiglottitis and the Choking Child

Upper airway obstruction is diagnosed from the doorway and treated in the first thirty seconds. Assemble findings on the differential bench and watch five diagnoses separate, then move to the first-action gate, where what you do not do matters more than what you do. Every wrong choice explains the harm it causes.

Work the airway

Tick only what you have actually observed. The point of the bench is to feel which findings move the answer and which merely decorate it.
Nothing ticked yetAdd findings on the left and the diagnoses will separate
Waiting
Tick a finding to begin.
Stridor requires airflow. A child whose stridor softens while retractions deepen, whose colour greys, or who slumps against a caregiver has less air moving, not less obstruction — document what you hear and what you no longer hear, and escalate on the change.