How to Survive a Heart Attack Alone

[Recusant]

I came across this little snippet of information while wandering about, and thought I might as well share it. I'm not sure how effective this technique is, but it may be better than just sitting there groaning in agony before passing out and dying.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

If everyone who gets this sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we'll save at least one life. 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. 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)

From philcheung.com

[joeactor]

Sorry, but this one's a hoax:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/coughcpr.asp

Origins:   This helpful e-mail began its life on the Internet in June 1999, and in the spring of 2004 a Powerpoint presentation of it began circulating online. Those kindhearted souls who started it on its way likely had no inkling the advice they were forwarding could potentially be harmful to someone undergoing a heart attack, but that is indeed the
case.

If you knew exactly what you were doing, this procedure might help save your life. If, however, you were to attempt cough CPR at the wrong time (because you misjudged the kind of cardiac event being experienced) or went about it in the wrong way, it could make matters worse.

Cough CPR is not a new procedure — it has been around for years and has been used successfully in isolated emergency cases where victims realized they were on the verge of fainting and about to go into full cardiac arrest (their hearts were about to stop) and knew exactly how to cough so as to keep enough oxygen-enriched blood circulating to prevent them from losing consciousness until help could be sought, or they were under the direct care of physicians who recognized the crises as they were taking place and were on hand to instruct patients step by step through the coughing. Even were the afflicted to correctly recognize they were experiencing the sort of cardiac event where cough CPR could help, without specific training to hit the right rhythms their coughing could turn mild heart attacks into fatal ones.

[Recusant]

Thank you, joeactor. That's what I get for not doing proper research.

[joeactor]

Thank you, joeactor. That's what I get for not doing proper research.

Happy to lend a hand, er... query...