|
HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE |
|
|
Let's say it's 6: 15 p. m.
and you're driving home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day
at work. 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. From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240s newsletter AND THE BEAT GOES ON (reprint from The Mended Hearts, Inc. publication, Heart Response). Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) consists of mouth-to-mouth respiration and chest compression. CPR allows oxygenated blood to circulate to vital organs such as the brain and heart. CPR can keep a person alive until more advanced procedures (such as defibrillation - an electric shock to the chest) can treat the cardiac arrest. CPR started by a bystander doubles the likelihood of survival for victims of cardiac arrest. |