‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest?
Background: In emergency ambulance calls, agonal breathing remains a barrier to the recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and rapid dispatch. We aimed to explore whether the language used by callers to describe breathing had an impact on c...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2018
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| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1076949 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59567 |
| _version_ | 1848760514800254976 |
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| author | Riou, Marine Ball, Stephen Williams, Teresa Whiteside, A. Cameron, P. Fatovich, D. Perkins, G. Smith, K. Bray, J. Inoue, Madoka O'Halloran, Kay Bailey, P. Brink, D. Finn, J. |
| author_facet | Riou, Marine Ball, Stephen Williams, Teresa Whiteside, A. Cameron, P. Fatovich, D. Perkins, G. Smith, K. Bray, J. Inoue, Madoka O'Halloran, Kay Bailey, P. Brink, D. Finn, J. |
| author_sort | Riou, Marine |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Background: In emergency ambulance calls, agonal breathing remains a barrier to the recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and rapid dispatch. We aimed to explore whether the language used by callers to describe breathing had an impact on call-taker recognition of agonal breathing and hence cardiac arrest. Methods: We analysed 176 calls of paramedic-confirmed OHCA, stratified by recognition of OHCA (89 cases recognised, 87 cases not recognised). We investigated the linguistic features of callers’ response to the question “is s/he breathing?” and examined the impact on subsequent coding by call-takers. Results: Among all cases (recognised and non-recognised), 64% (113/176) of callers said that the patients were breathing (yes-answers). We identified two categories of yes-answers: 56% (63/113) were plain answers, confirming that the patient was breathing (“he's breathing”); and 44% (50/113) were qualified answers, containing additional information (“yes but gasping”). Qualified yes-answers were suggestive of agonal breathing. Yet these answers were often not pursued and most (32/50) of these calls were not recognised as OHCA at dispatch. Conclusion: There is potential for improved recognition of agonal breathing if call-takers are trained to be alert to any qualification following a confirmation that the patient is breathing. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:17:00Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-59567 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:17:00Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-595672023-04-05T06:05:05Z ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? Riou, Marine Ball, Stephen Williams, Teresa Whiteside, A. Cameron, P. Fatovich, D. Perkins, G. Smith, K. Bray, J. Inoue, Madoka O'Halloran, Kay Bailey, P. Brink, D. Finn, J. Background: In emergency ambulance calls, agonal breathing remains a barrier to the recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and rapid dispatch. We aimed to explore whether the language used by callers to describe breathing had an impact on call-taker recognition of agonal breathing and hence cardiac arrest. Methods: We analysed 176 calls of paramedic-confirmed OHCA, stratified by recognition of OHCA (89 cases recognised, 87 cases not recognised). We investigated the linguistic features of callers’ response to the question “is s/he breathing?” and examined the impact on subsequent coding by call-takers. Results: Among all cases (recognised and non-recognised), 64% (113/176) of callers said that the patients were breathing (yes-answers). We identified two categories of yes-answers: 56% (63/113) were plain answers, confirming that the patient was breathing (“he's breathing”); and 44% (50/113) were qualified answers, containing additional information (“yes but gasping”). Qualified yes-answers were suggestive of agonal breathing. Yet these answers were often not pursued and most (32/50) of these calls were not recognised as OHCA at dispatch. Conclusion: There is potential for improved recognition of agonal breathing if call-takers are trained to be alert to any qualification following a confirmation that the patient is breathing. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59567 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2017.11.058 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1076949 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1029983 Elsevier fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Riou, Marine Ball, Stephen Williams, Teresa Whiteside, A. Cameron, P. Fatovich, D. Perkins, G. Smith, K. Bray, J. Inoue, Madoka O'Halloran, Kay Bailey, P. Brink, D. Finn, J. ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? |
| title | ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? |
| title_full | ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? |
| title_fullStr | ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? |
| title_short | ‘She's sort of breathing’: What linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? |
| title_sort | ‘she's sort of breathing’: what linguistic factors determine call-taker recognition of agonal breathing in emergency calls for cardiac arrest? |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1076949 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1076949 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59567 |