Assessment of an alert and oriented 9-year-old child with a history of asthma reveals him to be breathing 20 times a minute with adequate chest rise and fall. You also note that he exhibits nasal flaring and has slight retractions of the intercostal muscles. His heart rate is 100 beats per minute and his blood pressure is 102/64 mmHg. On room air, he has a pulse oximeter reading of 98 percent. The EMT would recognize:
Select one:
a. compensated respiratory distress.
b. hypoxic respiratory failure.
c. decompensated respiratory failure.
d. late respiratory failure.