Once we know the airway is clear, we can see whether any oxygen is getting to the lungs already. Oxygen gets to the lungs when people breathe. We have to check whether the patient is breathing by looking, listening and feeling. You look to see if their chest is moving or not- this may be difficult if they've got lots of clothes on. Listen to see if you can hear any breath sounds. Feel for any breath on your check. You need to get quite close to them to do this, and you need to check for ten seconds. Make sure the airway is open while you check for breathing.

Look, listen and feel

If they are breathing, put them into the recovery position.

If someone has stopped breathing, they need to go to hospital as soon as possible, so we need to call for an ambulance.

Once we’ve phoned for an ambulance, we know there is still some oxygen in the blood, so we can move straight onto pumping the blood around the body, but must come back tobreathing later.