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A 34-year-old man has been pulled out of a lake after being submerged for several minutes. Bystanders describe that he appeared to become exhausted while swimming. Why are effective rescue breaths important if your BLS assessment indicates cardiac arrest?

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This patient needs oxygen immediately, seeing as how several minutes submerged can cause brain death due to the brain not receiving oxygen. Because it is uncertain the amount of water that could be in the lungs, and the fact one of the bodies defenses toward drowning is swelling and closing of the airway, you need to force oxygen into the blood stream.
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