 Let'ssay
it's 9.00 p.m. and you're driving home alone, 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 nearest hospital. Unfortunately you don't know
if you'll be able to make it that far. You've been trained
in CPR but the person who taught the course did not tell
you how to perform it on yourself.
Many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack,
without help, they have 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.
Tell as many other people as possible about this,
it could save their lives! |
