this may save your life ....

[Bill Corrigal]

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 letting 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)

 

[Texas Transplant]

Very interesting. Glad that you posted it up.



Tex

 

[Steve Rizza]

I have taken many CPR and first aid classes,and have never heard of this.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[C C]

Last time I heard this one is was declared a hoax: From Hoaxbuster.com



July 1999



Want to know how to survive a heart attack alone? Give yourself CPR by coughing. Both the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross say this method of CPR is highly unlikely to save anyone. Realize that if your heart has stopped you are going to pass out in a matter of seconds. If you have not passed out, your heart has not stopped and you do not need CPR. You will have a much higher survival probability if you dial 911 before you pass out.


http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

 

[Bill Corrigal]

Sorry guys ...this was sent to me from a freind who works at our Regional health authority...I took it to be true!

 

[Steve Rizza]

If I was about to croak and nobody was around to help,I would do the Curley Shuffle if I thought it would help.LOL

 

[Greg Meyer]

Just out... Doing the Curley Shuffle to stop heart attacks is a hoax!

 

[Larry Harp]

The latest in emergency heart attack care.



Harpo

 

[Staci Matheis]

12 years now since I had a quintuple bypass.....

Had a stent put in back in October.....

ALWAYS have those nitroglycerin pills handy.....

I'd MUCH rather have a Nitro handy!







Whether it's true of not.....

THANKS, Bill!

 

[Richard Whittemore]

...and I'm really tired of the one about congress members not paying social security and having to retire with full salary until they depart this life.

This is no bull, it's true.

 

[C C]

Richard, I thought that Congress does pay into social security and since 1984 their retirement benefits are based on the same system as other federal employees.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

I have to have ALL the CPR classes to be a guide and renew every other year and have never heard that. That's cool. And when your heart stops, you instantly pass out.....you're clinically dead. Usually you will pass out before the last contraction, because at that point you heartbeat is so irregular, your brain has sent messages to all other organs to shut down to redirect blood flow and energy to the heart and thus you are usually unconscious a few seconds even before the heart beats it's last. But enough about that. Anything that can keep you going long enough to get to help is great. And what they teach you in the CPR class specifically for guides is, if you have a client that experiences a heart attack deep in the woods....save your energy and just dig a hole. Sorry, true.

 

[Shannon Daves]

Well, cant say its false, but I've never heard of it. I have been a medic for 14 years. I have had a few patients that have went into arrest in front of me while watching the monitor. Their rhythm goes into V-fib before they actually lose consciousness...but usually they are all but out of it. Had one guy tell me he felt wierd...looked at the monitor and he was in fib...looked back and he was gone. All happened in about 3-4 seconds.



This might work if your heart goes into V-tach. This is when the ventricles do the pumping and it is a very accellerated rated. If not corrected your heart cant pump enough blood and you will pass out.



Another rhythm that this might work is SVT (Supra Ventricular Tachycardia). This means the rhythm is originating from about the vetricals (usually atria). When we have a pt with this, unless they are unstable, I try several things to try to stop it. 1) M1 maneuver. Basically trying to take a crap without. You basically strain like you are constipated. This is a vagal maneuver and can slow the heart rate, 2) ice water immersion - hand, face, 3) Carotid artery massage. Massaging the left or right carotid artery (dont try this at home).



My opinion is that this "cough CPR" is BS. Just my 2 cents.