The nurse is a first responder following a mass casualty incident and performs triage on these victims while waiting for assistance. List the patients in order they must be treated according to the Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) protocol.

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Unresponsive patient who begins breathing spontaneously with a jaw-thrust maneuver, Unresponsive patient who is breathing and has a capillary refill of 4 seconds, Unresponsive patient who is moaning and has a radial pulse, Unresponsive patient with only agonal breathing after opening the airway. According to the START protocol, patients are triaged using the ABCs (airway, breathing, circulation) for prioritization. Therefore, the patient who begins breathing spontaneously with a jaw-thrust maneuver needs the most immediate attention. The second patient to be to be treated is the patient who is breathing spontaneously but has poor perfusion as evidenced by a capillary refill greater than 2 seconds. The patient who is moaning is breathing and has a radial pulse; this patient will be seen third. The patient who only gasps after appropriate airway positioning will be seen only after the other patients are stabilized as this patient is unlikely to survive; treating this patient would sadly waste valuable time/resources with minimal chance of success.

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