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Heart Attack when you are alone

Heart attack has the unfortunate property of coming on at any time and at any place. It can occur when you are alone and nobody is around, for example on a lonely road while on morning walk, or while driving a car on the highway. You ought to know what is best to do under the circumstances.

Suggestions:

First and foremost thing to do is to immediately stop all physical activity so as to reduce the workload of the heart to the minimum.
If alone at home, phone a friend or a relative for immediate help and arranging for ambulance / conveyance for your transfer to a well equipped hospital.
If driving alone on the road, pull the car to one side, put on the hazard ( blinking) lights and blow the horn incessantly till somebody takes note and comes over to help.
Put a tablet of Angised (nitroglycerine) or Sorbitrate. If available, under the tongue. The tablet dilates the constricted coronary artery, increases the blood supply to the affected portion of the heart and helps lesson the damage to the heart muscle. At the same time, it dilates other blood vessels of the body also, which has the effect of reducing load on the heart.
Chew a tablet of Aspirin or equivalent such as Anacin, Disprin ( not Disprin plus). It reduces the coagulability of the blood by thinning the later and thus slows down clotting of blood in the affected coronary artery that is causing the heart attack.
Do not drive to the hospital yourself, if possible. Request someone else to do so.

Cardiac Arrest

This potentially deadly complication can occur during the heart attack or even without previous warning. You may suddenly feel dizzy and about to faint. You have no more than 10 seconds before losing consciousness. The immediate treatment by external cardiac massage, described in chapter 9, can only be carried out by somebody else. If nobody trained in the procedure is at hand, you have to help yourself as follows

Cough repeatedly and vigorously as below:
Take a deep breath before you cough.
Then cough; the cough must be deep and prolonged as when producing and expelling sputum from deep inside the chest,
Repeat the deep breathe and cough every two seconds without let-up till help arrives or the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
Deep breaths draw more oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulation going. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it to regain its normal rhythm.

When you reach the hospital emergency, announce to the staff on duty that you are suffering from a heart attack, making it certain that the emergency has been recognized by them and a specialist doctor has been called in to attend on you. Every minute counts. Earlier the treatment is started, lesser is the damage to the heart muscle; and better are the chances of a good functional recovery.
It is important to err on the side of caution, particularly if the symptoms are not typical such as ‘heartburn’, ‘gas’ or pain only in the shoulder or jaw. Insist on proper observation and investigation for a possible heart attack. A stitch in time, saves a life.

Prevention of Heart Attacks

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