Number 244 - September 2003

When Alone How To Survive A Heart Attack
by Maureen Borba, YMCA Tacoma Wa Contributed by TOG Member Fred Shelton If everyone who gets this sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we'll save at least one life. Read this...It could save your life.
Let's say it's 6.15 pm and you're driving home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really'tired, 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 five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.    Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing conscious. 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.	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!!!    Don't ever think that you are not prone to heart attack as your age is less than 25 or 30. Nowadays due to the change in the life style, heart attack is found among people of all age groups.    BE A FRIEND AND PLEASE SEND THIS ARTICLE TO AS MANY FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE
Number 244 - September 2003