Scenario:
You're on your own in the car, you've had a stressful day, you're tired and upset. You suddenly feel a severe pain in the chest which radiates to your left arm and jaw. You are only 5 miles from the nearest hospital, but you won't make it that far.
You've been trained in CPR, but that won't help, because the guy who ran the course didn't tell you how to perform it on yourself! If your heart is beating improperly and you begin to feel faint, you have about 10 seconds before you loose consciousness.
Answer.
Don't panic, but start coughing, repeatedly and vigorously. Take a deep breath before each cough, the cough must be deep and prolonged as when trying to bring up sputum from deep inside the chest.
A breath and cough must be repeated about every two seconds untill help arrives or untill the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
The deep breath get oxygen into the lungs whilst the coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure also help the heart to regain a normal rythm allowing you time to get to hospital.
(Article published on #240 of 'journal of the general hospital Rochester' and taken from a Slideshow presentation)
Seriously off topic I know, but serious enough to be off topic. Please note that coughing should not take the place of adminstered CPR if there is someone there to help you.
Way off topic. Should have been removed but by the time I found it it had comments so I left it in order to avoid "where did my comment go?" confusion. Come on , guys, this is not the place for these things. And replying to it only encourages it.
Well, it is your board and you can turn it into webmd if you want. I am making it read only, so if you want to discuss this stuff do it in your Diary.
Please pass onto others.
