HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE
By F. Daniel Rochman MD
"Let's say it's 6:15 p.m. and you're driving home (alone of course), after an unusually
hard day on the job.
You're really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain
in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw.
You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home;
unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You've been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course neglected
to tell you how to perform it on yourself. Since many people are alone
when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed to be in order. Without
help, the person whose heart stops beating properly and who begins to
feel faint, has only about 10 seconds! left before losing consciousness.
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and
very vigorously.
A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be
deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest,
and a cough must be repeated about every 2 seconds without let up until
help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again. Deep
breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart
and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps
it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.
Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their lives!"
From Health Cares,
Rochester General Hospital via
Chapter 240s newsletter AND THE BEAT GOES ON ....
(reprint from The Mended Hearts, Inc. publication, Heart response)
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