Subject: Is it a stroke or heart attack?
This might be a lifesaver if we can remember the three questions:
Is it a stroke?
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately,
thelack of awareness spells disaster for the stroke victim. A
stroke victim maysuffer brain damage when people nearby fail to
recognize the symptoms of astroke. Now doctors say any bystander
can recognize a stroke by asking threesimple questions:
Ask the individual to smile.
Ask him or her to raise both arms.
Ask the person to speak a simple sentence.
* If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1
immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could
identifyfacial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers
urged thegeneral public to learn the three questions.
Is It A Heart Attack?
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 toradiate 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. 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 ALONE
Since 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
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly
andvery vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before
each cough, andthe 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
withoutlet-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to
be beating normallyagain.
Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements
squeeze theheart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing
pressure of the heartalso helps it regain normal rhythm. In this
way, heart attack victims canget to a hospital.
