[oldbuddy]

I got this from a friend on Facebook and it hit home because I had one of these attacks the day before I had Open Heart Surgery for a Quad Bypass!

From my sister, the surgical nurse and certified CPR teacher:
Please pause for 2 minutes and read this:

1. Let’s say it’s 7.25pm and you’re going home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job.
2. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated.
3 Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home.
4. Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far.
5. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy who taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.
6. HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? 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 consciousness.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!
10. A cardiologist says If everyone who gets this mail kindly sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll save at least one life.
11. Rather than sending jokes or recipes, please... contribute by forwarding this message which can save a person’s life.
12. If this message comes around you... more than once… please don’t get irritated... You should instead, be happy that you have many friends who care about you & keeps reminding you how to deal with a Heart attack.

God Bless You All.

[Fergal]

Thanks for sharing those tips with us oldbuddy. I'm always wary about advice like that, which is spread on social media. Some of it is created to go viral, not to actually help people. The most important thing to do when someone is having a heart attack is to call emergency services.

This page on the Irish Heart Foundation website says;

There is no medical evidence to support the use of “Cough CPR”

[oldbuddy]

Thanks for sharing those tips with us oldbuddy. I'm always wary about advice like that, which is spread on social media. Some of it is created to go viral, not to actually help people. The most important thing to do when someone is having a heart attack is to call emergency services.

This page on the Irish Heart Foundation website says;

There is no medical evidence to support the use of “Cough CPR”

Probably true, but as someone who has gone through it, I guarantee I will try it without hesitation if it happens again.