An acute-care airway topic for ED, prehospital and critical-care teams managing apnoea, respiratory arrest or peri-intubation care. It keeps mask size, patient positioning, two-person seal, tidal volume, capnography and early escalation tied to whether ventilation is actually effective.

Penetrating chest trauma with shock, preserved cardiac activity and ultrasound tamponade needs a prepared route to decompression and definitive care. The critical appraisal angle is caution: selected pericardiocentesis evidence should not replace a rehearsed thoracotomy and damage-control plan.

Airway or breathing compromise should drive anaphylaxis treatment before rash or hypotension becomes the gatekeeper. This is the strongest first choice for roadside, triage and resus practice: early intramuscular adrenaline, 5-minute reassessment, severe bronchospasm, refractory reactions and airway escalation are all explicit.

Acute intracerebral haemorrhage needs careful pressure lowering, not a fast overshoot. The trauma and airway papers add a governance message: record whether bleeding control, tranexamic acid, first-pass success and complications are happening in real resuscitations.

The action point is immediate: no single chest sign safely excludes a blunt traumatic pneumothorax, and the same episode also sharpens how to read whole-blood trial results and when selected older patients with head injury may avoid conveyance after senior review.

Refractory VF demands technical precision, not just repetition. Check pad position, keep the lateral pad truly mid-axillary, and change to an anterior-posterior vector with fresh pads after three failed shocks; during ventilated CPR, raise the pressure alarm so set tidal volumes are actually delivered.