HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE

 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. 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)