HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

From F. Daniel Rochman MD

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, and 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)

BE A FRIEND AND PLEASE SEND THIS ARTICLE TO AS MANY FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE.

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

Interesting...

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

Yeah, I thought so. THought it could be valuable info to one of us.

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

How To Survive A Heart Attack Alone (Hoax)



Description


This email hoax started circulating on the Internet in June 1999. It claims that heart attack victims can help themselves through a procedure known as “cough CPR”, wherein the victim coughs repeatedly and vigorously while taking deep breaths before each cough. It was intended to serve as a useful know-how to help possible sufferers of heart attacks. However, sources of this email had really little to no idea as to how potentially harmful this information could be, especially to those who are not knowledgeable of this procedure.

The email message also suggests that this “cough CPR” technique was recommended by Rochester General Hospital and The Mended Hearts support group. Rochester General Hospital has denied this, and The Mended Hearts, on the other hand, released a disclaimer which states, “The American Heart Association does not recommend that the public use this method in a situation where there is no medical supervision.” Although cough CPR is a medically approved procedure, this must only be done with professional supervision.

Trend Micro advises recipients of this email to treat the information contained with much caution. The said procedure is not recommended for non-medically skilled individuals.

Original Message


HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

From F. Daniel Rochman MD

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, and 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)

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

So it is an approved medical procedure, but you shouldn't do it on your own huh? If I was having a heart attack, I would think the risk of trying this method outweighs dying, no?

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

Ah, so its a hoax. Sounded credible enough.


Alex - your a Doc -- whats your informal opinion?

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

There is a grain of truth in this, but I seriously doubt that anyone having a heart attack could do this. It is like trying to do a tracheotomy on yourself with a pocket knife and an empty ball point pen if your airway is closed and you are alone. In theory you could do it, but I doubt even a doctor or a medic could pull it off.

It is really tough to concentrate when your circulation or breathing is cut off. The first reaction is almost always surprise or panic, which is followed by passing out. Nobody wants to die, but it is natural not to struggle at the final moments of your life.

This e-mail has been circulation since 1999. I received it for the first time a few weeks back. There is more information on it at http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blcpr.htm .

Alexander
President
Lincolns of Distinction

Ah, but I found THIS

Ah, but I found THIS

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3077018/

Cough may help during heart attack
Technique may allow patients to stay conscious, study finds

The Associated Press

Updated: 6:11 p.m. ET Oct. 31, 2003VIENNA -

Coughing vigorously until an ambulance arrives could save the lives of people having a type of heart attack brought on by rapid and erratic heart beat, a doctor said Tuesday.


Dr. Tadeusz Petelenz, a researcher in Poland, said the technique, called Cough CPR, forces blood to the brain while the heart is starting to fail and keeps patients conscious long enough to call for help. It may also rectify their heart rhythm, he told a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.

He recommended Cough CPR be taught to the public, but other experts said while the concept is provocative, it needs more study.

Every year about 300,000 people in the United States die from sudden cardiac death.

Most of the time, the culprit is a type of heart attack brought on by a sudden problem with the heart’s rhythm — ventricular fibrillation.

In three-quarters of cases, the attack happens at home, often when the victim is alone. Circulation stops, the victim faints and brain damage occurs within minutes. Death usually follows in about 15 minutes.

“Since the onset of the loss of consciousness is very rapid, they usually don’t have enough time to call for help,” said Petelenz, a professor at the Silesian Medical School in Katowice, Poland. “However, if victims could maintain consciousness until circulation is restored or help arrives their chances of survival would greatly increase.”

Electric shock to the heart, known as defibrillation, is the only real treatment. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, can keep the brain and heart viable for about 10 minutes, long enough for an ambulance to bring a defibrillator.

Only a fraction of heart attack victims get CPR from a bystander, and few of those will receive the shock treatment before suffering irreversible brain damage.

The rate of survival without serious brain damage is about 10 percent, said Dr. Leo Bossaert, executive director of the European Resuscitation Council.

Petelenz’s idea is not entirely new. Doctors sometimes ask heart disease patients undergoing angiograms to cough rhythmically and forcefully to get their circulation going.

Bossaert, a professor at the University Hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, said coughing probably would not be harmful, but it is far too early to recommend people try it at home. The symptoms preceding an attack can be hard for people to recognize in the 30 seconds before they lose consciousness, he said.

More research needed
Dr. Marten Rosenquist, professor of cardiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and an expert in heart beat abnormalities, said the concept is interesting but that Petelenz showed no evidence his patients actually had arrhythmias.

Petelenz presented results from a study he conducted on 115 people who had previously fainted or come close to losing consciousness because of various heart problems. They were taught how to recognize the symptoms — sudden dizziness and weakness, shortness of breath, sudden sweating and blurred vision — and then taught the proper coughing technique.

The patients used the cough in 365 instances where they thought they were about to faint. The symptoms disappeared in 292 cases and medical attention was required in only 73 cases.

“All patients survived until the follow-up therapy, which included 45 pacemaker implantations, 55 heart surgeries and 15 (drug) interventions,” Petelenz said.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

RE: Ah, but I found THIS

RE: Ah, but I found THIS

from the same source I posted above:

In September 2003, four years after this email rumor began circulating, Polish physician Tadeusz Petelenz presented the results of a study which he said demonstrates that cough CPR can indeed save the lives of some heart attack victims. While not immediately embraced by all the members attending the European Society of Cardiology meeting where Petelenz spoke, the findings were characterized by some as "interesting." At least one heart specialist, Dr. Marten Rosenquist of Sweden, found fault with the study, objecting that Petelenz had presented no evidence that the subjects had actually experienced cardiac arythmias.

Alexander
President
Lincolns of Distinction

RE: Ah, but I found THIS

RE: Ah, but I found THIS

Hmm, considering the situation you'll be in at the time, whats the harm in trying? Not trying to be a smart alec, more curious then anything.

Hopefully, I wont have that questioned answered first hand LOL

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE


It is like trying to do a tracheotomy on yourself with a pocket knife and an empty ball point pen if your airway is closed and you are alone. In theory you could do it, but I doubt even a doctor or a medic could pull it off.


[/quote]

Father Mulcahy did it on M*A*S*H -- While Hawkeye talked him through it on the radio and radar assisted and mortar shells were dropping all around them. Used a Tom Nicks pocket knife.... And that guy survived.......

Ok, NOW im being a smart alek

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

I have seen heart attacks while they happen many times.

The most interesting one happened a few years back and illustrates the mental state during a typical heart attack.

A gentleman with hypertension came in for a routine visit to my office. He had no complaints and just wanted prescription refills, but as per routine, I choose to check his vitals.

In the exam room, I checked his blood pressure, which was slightly elevated. I next listened to his heart with my stethoscope. I could not hear it, so I asked him to lean forward. I still could not hear it. I thought to myself that this was quite unusual as I never had problems hearing his heart before.

In the next moment his whole body goes limp. Now I knew why I could not hear a heartbeat - there was no heartbeat!

I laid him down and was ready to perform CPR, when he awoke. I opened up the door, and told the medical assistants to call 911 and get the crash cart.

I ask the patient how was feeling, and he says he was all right; that he was "just thinking." I am wondering where my staff is with the emergency kit and the EKG machine. I open the door of the exam room and repeat my request. They thought it was just a joke! That's a problem with staying calm in an emergency situation; others cannot see that it is an emergency. I scream, “This is for real.”

I check the patient's vitals, and they are surprisingly stable. He decides to sit up on his own and he again passes out. Again he comes to and reassures me that nothing is wrong and he is "just thinking." The staff is in the room by this time. I tell him not to think so much since it is worrying us.

Within minutes the EMS arrives. As per routine, they take vitals. They unfortunately sit him up whereupon he promptly faints. He's thinking again! I suggest to the EMS that they keep him flat.

He got to the hospital and was treated for what was a major heart attack. He had been having chest pain for weeks but never told anyone. He survived that heart attack and he still is my patient today. I just don't let him think when he is in my office.

Alexander
President
Lincolns of Distinction

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

SO I assume you didnt get sued for not magically knowing the guy was having a heart attack? LOL

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

Isn't it good to pop an aspirin if you are having a heart attack..or is it too late at this point?

RE: HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

Yes, it can help, but call 911 first.

Do not take an aspirin if you think you are having a stroke. It may help an ischemic strike but can make a hemorrhagic stroke worse.

Alexander
President
Lincolns of Distinction