AboutRob Expertise I can answer anything that has to do with BLS including the AED as well as any ACLS questions as far as the American Heart Association is concerned. I am an instructor for both BLS and ACLS and work in a hospital as an Emergency Dept. Technician.
Experience I have been an EMT for about a year now. I have been teaching BLS under the AHA guidelines for about 6 months. I also am an assistant instructor for ACLS as well.
Education/Credentials AS degree in Biology
CPR, ACLS, ECG, EMT certified.
Expert: Rob Date: 9/6/2007 Subject: CPR performed on self
Question I recently received an email that stated you can help yourself if you feel you are having a heart attack and you are alone by taking a deep breath and coughing vigourously as if to produce sputum from deep in the chest and repeating this every 2 seconds until the symptoms subside or help arrives...I want to know how I can find a reputible article or medical document that supports this theory. I don't want to spread it to others if it isn't true. The theory is that the coughing compresses the heart to help return it to normal rythym and the breathing gets more oxygen to the blood.
Answer My advice is don't believe everything you read. If you are having a "heart attack" and still able to produce a strong cough and breathe deep, then you are not having a real heart attack. If you feel chest pain and think you are starting to have a heart attack, coughing would be physiologically the last thing you would want to do. Everytime you cough, your heart goes through a minor crisis which under normal circumstances is fine. Your heart is designed to take the stress of a cough or series of coughs.
Usually people who are having heart attacks tend to breathe deep and "gasp" for air as they are having it. It has little to do with the air going down your trachea and more to do with hemoglobin capacity during a major medical trauma that your body would be going through in an event of a heart attack.
Lastly if you are in the situation where you need CPR, then medically speaking you are dead. CPR is when heart stops and breathing stops hence why someone needs to do that for you if you are down. More importantly, you need advanced help. If you are feeling like you are having a heart attack, CALL 9-1-1 or get someone else to and try and get an AED. ACLS care is what saves the day, CPR just keeps you from being brain dead.
In the future, unless a CPR article/e-mail comes from the AHA or Red Cross, then it has really no authority. I hope this helps.
