Coughing might save heart
attack victims
By Dr. Narinder Saini. MD Cardiologist
Coughing hard at the first sign of a heart attack
could save a patient's life, a Polish Doctor Tadeusz
Petelenz of the Cardiological Foundation in Katowice,
Poland, said. The pumping action caused by vigorous
coughing could push blood through the body and to
the brain for valuable minutes while an ambulance
arrived.
Every year one in a 1,000 people in the Western
world die from cardiac arrest, the vast majority
caused by a sudden problem with the heart's rhythm.
In these cases, properly timed and performed coughs
can allow the patient to maintain consciousness
and even regain an effective heart beat, Petelenz
told attendees at the annual meeting of the European
Society of Cardiology.
Currently, only one in 10 victims of cardiac
arrest survive without serious brain damage. High-risk
patients should therefore be taught how to cough
effectively, starting with a single cough every
one to two seconds in bouts of five coughs, Petelenz
said.
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