This came across BirdChat but should be of interest to all. ¯-------------------------------------- All of a sudden 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. This is a reprint of an article that was published in the newsletter of Rochester General Hospital. It gives you a course of action should you find yourself alone and think that you are having a heart attack. Before passing it on to anyone else (I didn't recognize the source), I felt it was necessary to get a more learned opinion as to the validity of the procedure so I dropped it off for Dr. Domangue (Plant Medical Director) to comment on. His comment was very brief: "You should do this." HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE (Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed 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. PLEASE first pull to the side of the road, if driving. 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. 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 phone and, between breaths, call for help. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives! Naturally you should call 911 as soon as you can. Good Birding! Tyler Bell mailto:bell@acnatsci.org California, MD http://www.audubon.org/chapter/md/smas/