As you enter the living room of an adult patient who called…
As you enter the living room of an adult patient who called 911 for shortness of breath, you observe the patient sitting upright in a chair with a panicked look on her face, struggling to breathe, with obvious suprasternal retractions. Her breathing rate appears to be fast and her tidal volume poor. You can hear rhonchi from her lungs without the aid of a stethoscope. Once at her side, your initial care should be to: