HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

Since many
people are alone when they suffer a heart attack,
this article seemed in order. Please pass this on to
your family and friends. I sincerely hope no one
encounters this situation in their lifetime but just
in case....

This one is serious...Let's say it's 5:17 p.m. and
you're driving home (alone of course) after an
unusually hard day on the job. Not only was the work
load extraordinarily heavy, you also had a
disagreement with your boss, and no matter how hard
you tried, he just wouldn't see your side of the
situation.

You're really upset and the more you think
about it, the more up-tight you become. All of a
sudden you start experiencing a 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. Without help the person
whose heart stops beating properly and who begins to
feel faint, has only about10 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. A breath and a cough must
be repeated about every two 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 phone and, between
breaths, call for help.

Tell as many other people
as possible about this, it could save their lives!

From Health Cares,
Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240's
newsletter ANDTHE BEAT GOES ON... (reprint from The
Mended Hearts, Inc. publication, Heart response)

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