What can I do, in case I experience signs of heart-attac
From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital
Situation: 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.
Question is: 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 10seconds left before losing consciousness.
Your chance - 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 ...