4.1. Introduction
The injuries caused by accidents and emergency situations can be accompanied by disturbances of consciousness, respiration and circulation which need urgent medical involvement.
Disturbances of respiration and circulation can develop as a consequence of different causes: blood loss, shock, myocardial infarction, drowning, etc. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation carried out within first minutes gives a chance to save lives to a considerable number of casualties. Ineffective or not given first aid or resuscitation end with inevitable death.
Signs of biological death are postmortem lividity (blue and purple discoloration spots on the dependent part of the body, appearing within 2–4 hours after death), drying of the cornea and the phenomenon of “cat’s eye” (if the eye-ball pressed, the pupil gets slit-like form), rigor mortis (loss of the joints flexibility).
If the signs of biological death are identified, the resuscitation is already pointless and not performed.