Survive A Heart Attack

How to survive a heart attack while 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)

A Serious note about heart attacks:

Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting.Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.

You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack.

Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms.

60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up.

Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware.  The more we know, the better chance we could survive...