SELF-CPR CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE

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Especially in the holiday season, we need to always take good care of our health! This is a very important reminder that I received by email, and am passing along to all of us in WFWP!

Let's say it is 7:25pm and you're driving home alone 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 drag out into your arm and up into your jaw.

You are only about five kilometers from the hospital nearest to your home. Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

How to survive a heart attack when you are alone?

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.

Cough, cough repeatedly and very vigorously! Take a deep breath before each cough, and cough deeply and prolonged, as if you are expelling sputum from deep inside your chest.

Breathe and cough repeatedly about every two seconds without stopping until help arrives; or until your heart is beating normally again.

Why breathe and cough? Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and the coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The pressure squeezing the heart helps the heart regain its normal rhythm. In this way, a heart attack victim can stay alive until help comes or until a hospital is reached.