Let's say it's 8:15 p.m. And you're driving (alone of course), in a foreign Country.
You’re lost, on unfamiliar turf 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 remember passing a hospital about five miles back.
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 it happened to 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 is beating improperly 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.
From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240s newsletter
