If someone is unresponsive right now, call 000. Put the phone on speaker so you can keep your hands free.
Check breathing before you move anyone
The recovery position is for a person who is unresponsive but breathing normally. That is the whole test, and it has to be answered before anything else, because the two situations need opposite responses.
- Unresponsive and breathing normally → recovery position, call 000, keep watching
- Unresponsive and not breathing normally → start CPR, following the Basic Life Support sequence
Occasional gasping is not normal breathing. If you are unsure whether breathing is normal, treat it as not normal and start CPR. The DRSABCD action plan sets out the full sequence that gets you to this point.
How to tell if someone is unconscious
Australian Resuscitation Council guidance describes checking response by talk and touch: give a simple command, then firmly grasp and squeeze the shoulders. Do it without causing or worsening any injury.
Someone who does not respond, or gives only a minor response such as groaning without opening their eyes, should be managed as if unconscious. Do not wait for a clearer answer.
Putting someone in the recovery position
The guidance is less prescriptive about exact limb placement than most people expect. What matters is the outcome: the person on their side, airway open, stable, and able to drain.
- Make the scene safe for you and for them before you touch anything.
- Lower them to the ground and turn them onto their side, keeping the airway open. Do not leave them sitting in a chair, and do not put their head between their knees.
- Call an ambulance on 000.
- Stop any serious bleeding promptly.
- Keep re-checking their condition for any change — continuously, not once.
Handle the person gently, avoiding twisting the head and spine or bending them forward.
What about a possible spinal injury?
This is the question that makes people hesitate, and hesitating is the greater risk. For an unconscious person who is breathing, airway care takes priority over any injury, including a possible spinal injury. An open airway keeps them alive; leaving someone on their back to protect a spine does not.
Move them carefully, support the head and neck, and avoid twisting — but move them.
Why the side position at all
On their back, an unconscious person’s tongue can fall back and obstruct the airway, and anything they vomit has nowhere to go. On their side, gravity works for you on both counts.
The Australian Resuscitation Council describes the evidence base for the side position as low quality and the recommendation as a weak one — but the direction is clear: an unresponsive person who is breathing normally is better on their side than left lying on their back.
Stay with them
Keep watching the breathing until the ambulance arrives. If it stops or stops being normal, roll them onto their back and begin CPR immediately. If more than one person is present, the most experienced should stay with the casualty.
This is a summary of what is taught in class, not a substitute for training. Skills like this are assessed practically for a reason — reading about them is not the same as having done them. In a real emergency, call 000.
Learn it properly
Best First Aid Training delivers HLTAID009 CPR and HLTAID011 first aid including CPR at Parramatta, Penrith, Blacktown and Liverpool. Already trained and due? See the first aid refresher and CPR refresher pages.
Source: Australian and New Zealand Committee on Resuscitation, ANZCOR Guideline 3 — Recognition and First Aid Management of the Unconscious Person.
