Red Cross Lifeguard Practice Test

Your initial impression reveals severe life-threatening bleeding in an adult victim who appears to be unresponsive. What should you do next?

1. Open the airway and check for breathing and a pulse.

2. Control the bleeding with any available resources.

3. Perform a secondary assessment.

4. Immediately begin CPR.

The correct answer is: Control the bleeding with any available resources.

When confronted with a situation involving severe life-threatening bleeding in an unresponsive adult, prioritizing the control of the bleeding is critical. Severe bleeding can lead to rapid loss of blood volume, shock, and ultimately death if not addressed promptly. Therefore, the immediate action should focus on utilizing any available resources—such as applying direct pressure, using dressings, or even employing tourniquets if necessary—to halt the bleeding. In this context, checking the airway and for breathing and a pulse, performing a secondary assessment, or starting CPR are important interventions, but they are secondary to controlling the primary life threat, which in this case is severe bleeding. If the bleeding is not controlled first, the victim may not survive long enough for any other intervention to be effective. Hence, addressing the bleeding is the top priority in this emergency situation.