Life Saver in the event of a heart attack

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

The following message contains advice that should be used only when there are absolutely no other means to ensure survival.

Thanks to Len Miskulin fwd fyi...   HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE Read This - It could save your life! Let's say it's 6:15 p.m. and you're driving home (alone of course), after a 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, didn't tell you what to do if a heart attack happens to you. Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed to be in order. Without help, the person whose heart is 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. 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 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) [*] BE A FRIEND AND PLEASE SEND THIS ARTICLE TO AS MANY FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE Len Miskulin SCC BA WTC ATBJ Chairman Live Beat Dads UK http://www.lbduk.org +44 (0)20-8508 6980 CHILDREN NEED BOTH PARENTS Two aspects of the advice forwarded by Len must be considered: The Rochester General Hospital declared that it did not originate the write-up. Mended Hearts actually published the write-up, but they subsequently declared that they no longer stand by it. Some people actually went so far as to declare the advice offered (a.k.a. Cough CPR) to be a hoax.  However, that is undeserved.  See the more extensive discussion relating to that issue for details of the controversy. —WHS Do more women than men die of heart attacks? Myths according to Oprah — and the facts! In all age groups, boys and men are more likely to die from heart attack than girls and women are, depending on age, from 1.07 to 2.52 times more likely!

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Posted 2002 05 05
Updates:
2002 11 19 (added introductory paragraph and a footnote)