Your protocols state that during the first few minutes of working on a cardiac arrest patient, you should provide passive ventilation. This means that you will:

• A. Deliver positive-pressure ventilation at rate of only 5 or 6 breaths/min.
• B. Ventilate with a bag-valve mask that is not attached to oxygen.
• C. Time your positive-pressure ventilations to occur during chest recoil.
• D. Allow recoil of the chest between compressions to draw air into the lungs.

Answer: (D)

Passive ventilation means letting air enter the lungs as the chest recoils after each compression, without actively delivering breaths. When you allow the chest to return to its resting position, negative intrathoracic pressure helps pull air in through an open airway. That recoil-driven air entry is the essence of passive ventilation during the early minutes of cardiac arrest.

So, the best choice describes letting the chest recoil between compressions to draw air into the lungs. The other options involve actively delivering breaths or timing breaths with compressions, which isn’t passive ventilation.