Yesterday whilst on a long plane flight I was glancing through a flying magazine when I noticed an article asking what would you do if you had a heart attack while flying. Not, as a passenger but as the pilot!
Well, what would you do? I asked myself that question and couldn't think of anything. After all you can't perform CPR on yourself! And, if you are alone in a little plane and/or by yourself in the car in a remote part of the country you can't get help quickly.
Anyway, I will outline the technique discovered by the Johnson City, Tennessee Medical Center. They have apparently tested it and it works. Lets face it anything is better than nothing if you are in the circumstances that I outlined. For that matter it would also apply if you were at home on your own. It could keep you alive long enough until help arrived.
OK...this is what you do...
At the first sign of a heart attack you must take a deep breath and start coughing vigorously. Repeat this cycle about every two seconds and keep it going until help arrives or the heart starts beating normally again.
How it helps is that the deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and the coughing movements squeeze the heart and help keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart helps it regain normal rhythm. If you are driving to get to a hospital this may make the difference whether you reach it or note...alive!
Share this info around as it makes sense and it may save your life or someone else's. Of course try not to be a victim in the first place by taking our Total Balance and Omega 3 DHA or if you have a potential problem our Cardio-Klenz as well.
Reader Comments (6)
Heres some Great Info. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/31/hands.only.cpr.ap/index.html
Turns out that hands only CPR is just as or more effective than traditional methods. See the link above for details. I guess if you were all alone and had a heart attack I would just just KEEP coughing , forget about the deep breathing.
April 2, 2008 | D Cruz
Please see http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/coughcpr.asp
this subject is mostly a hoax
April 3, 2008 | B Russell
Thanks for sharing this. I just read the article and it is heavily in favor of seeking medical advice and/or aspirin. What is interesting though it that they do recognise that it can be helpful in certain circumstances.
They seemed to be a bit vague why it was damgerous.
If I was alone flying an aeroplane or in the middle of the outback hundreds of miles from assistance (and this can be the case in Australia) then I reckon I would give it a go.
April 3, 2008 | Warren Matthews
I heared that in heart attack cases a person starts coughing. It appears that coughing is normal reaction of human body to a heart attack therefore continuing the coughing may help.
April 3, 2008 | Mousa Barakat
Thanks, B Russell, for the heads-up!
We need to check info like this to make sure before passing it on (like I did), and then have to forward the "Snopes" link!
April 26, 2008 | D Mayberry
I don't think that there was a problem with passing this posting on. Snope acknowledge that this is a techinique that can be used to prevent lapsing into unconsiousness. This was the thrust of the orginal posting. What do you do when you are in a remote area and there is NO assistance at all.
In their rebuttal they suggest to wait for medical assistance or take a couple of aspirin. Well if you are flying a small private plane on your own, or in the outback of Australia this is not an option.
If you are about to lose consiousness in such a remote area it is unlikely you will wake up and if you are flying a plane you will crash,,,so, I for one would try this technique if I was ever unfortunate enough to experience an event like this.
Even snope recognize that it has some merit.
April 27, 2008 | Warren Matthews