Would This Save your Life ?

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A lad at work passed this on - I dont know if it would work.

Dear All As you know, among my other "life encounters" I have also had a heart attack. Not a pleasant feeling, to say the least. The article below was sent to me by a dear and close friend, but because I had not hear about it - and being the sceptic I am, I asked my son, Greg, who, as some of you know, is a specialist in Emergency Medicine, what he thought of it.

have appended his reply at the end of this email. Love Joel

>----- Original Message ----- > >>

>> >>> Please God - we should never need to remember this!!

Hi all! read this--it could save your life, Elaine > Subject: CPR for Self > 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 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, and the cough must be very 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 phone and, between breaths, call for help.

Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their lives!

From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240's newsletter AND THE BEAT GOES ON ... (reprint from The Mended Hearts, Inc.publication, Heart Response)

LIFE MEANS MANY THINGS TO MANY PEOPLE. IF YOU VALUE LIFE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, PLEASE SEND THIS ARTICLE TO AS MANY FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE. >

This is the guys sons answer :-

Gidday Pop. Thanks for that interesting article.Indeed it is described in an Intensive Care Manual I have, which confirms that very point about the coughing maintaining an adequate blood pressure by mechanically pushing blood around the circulation.

I also believe that the act of coughing generates perhaps up to 30 joules of energy onto the heart which may be enough to revert ventricular fibrillation back to normal sinus rhythm(in fact we are taught that in cases of witnessed ventricular fibrillation ,a forceful blow to the chest with the back of a fist,the so called Precordial Thump,may sometimes revert this deadly rhythm by delivering about 30 joules of energy).

I also believe that such coughing can also revert less deadly rhythms,such as SVT and I believe part of this coughing is initiated as a reflex,rather than purely being voluntary....occasionally I get a heart flutter at which point I automatically cough and it abates...I wonder if you noticed this at the onset of your episodes of SVT?

Greg

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Answers

"How to watch a penalty shoot out" might have been a better thread title. (-;

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

Nice one, Josh.

I passed this suggestion on to a load of people at lunch today and they all seemed glad to have it on board. It's always something to bear in mind, it's better than doing nothing at all.

As said, please God none of us have to use it but who knows -it might save someone's life way down the line if the info gets passed around enough.

val.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000


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