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 you 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 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, 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!

From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240's news letter AND THE BEAT GOES ON... (reprint from The Mended Hearts, Inc. publication, Heart Response)

If you need to contact us by telephone:  Toll Free U.S.A.: 1-800-266-3556