You walk into your grandparents’ house and notice your grandmother is on the floor. She is not responding

You walk into your grandparents’ house and notice your grandmother is on the floor. She is not responding to you and will not wake up. You shake her and shout for your grandpa to call 911. You feel for and find a pulse, and you can hear her gasping for breath; what do you do next? Have you ever heard of the ABCs of first aid? A is airway, B is breathing, and C is circulation. Today, I am here to teach you about airway maneuvers and devices used in prehospital emergency medicine to open, control, create, or secure an airway. Doctors Catherine and Alan Marco of Penn State believe that “airway management is an essential component of the emergency medicine skill set.” As a career paramedic in the prehospital emergency medical system, I am very familiar with airway emergencies. After today, I hope you will feel more comfortable helping in an airway emergency. I will introduce you to airway maneuvers, airway adjuncts, supraglottic airways, endotracheal airways, and emergency airways. Let’s start with airway maneuvers. Airway maneuvers are ways of positioning a person that help to open their airway and allow them to breathe easier. There are two commonly used airway maneuvers: the head tilt, chin lift, and the jaw thrust. These maneuvers prevent the tongue from obstructing the airway in unconscious individuals. They are easy to perform and do not require specialized equipment. Utilizing one of these in the grandmother’s situation, which I mentioned earlier, may help open her airwa