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Respiratory Therapist
Treats patients with breathing difficulties — from asthma to critical care ventilator management.
Did you know?
Your lungs' inner surface is about 50 to 75 square metres, less than half a tennis court, despite the popular 'whole tennis court' claim.
How subjects help
- Biology: Understand how the lungs swap oxygen for waste gas and what happens in asthma.
- Chemistry: Read blood gas tests to see if a patient has too little oxygen in their blood.
- Physics: Set pressure and air flow on a ventilator so it breathes gently for a patient.
- Anatomy: Guide a breathing tube safely down the windpipe and past the vocal cords.
A famous name
Forrest Bird: Inventor whose Bird Mark 7 (1950s) was one of the first mass-produced breathing machines (ventilators).
Try it yourself: Count your breaths before and after exercise
- Sit still for a minute, then count how many times your chest rises in 30 seconds. Double it to get breaths per minute.
- Do star jumps at a steady pace for one minute. (Skip this if you have asthma or a heart condition, unless an adult says it is fine.)
- Straight away, count your chest rises for 30 seconds again and double it.
- Count once more after resting for three minutes, and draw a bar chart of your three results.
Respiratory therapists and anaesthetists watch breathing rate closely, because it is one of the first signs that a patient needs help.
Adapted from Oak National Academy: The effects of exercise on breathing and heart rate.
Also try: Guess the object from its shadow.
Known for it in
USA, Canada, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Australia