CPR and coughing...

To be honest I don't know if this has been covered here or not. I searched and didn't see anything. Here is the deal.

I got an email today telling me to cough as a form of CPR if I thought I was having a heart attack.

If anyone else gets this email they should know the facts behind it. Trying to give yourself CPR by coughing can turn a mild heart attack into a fatal one. here is the story.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

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.

And here is the truth:

Coughing for CPR

I just wanted to add a little truth to the email that is circulating.

wupy

Yeah. Thank you mrwupy. Stuff like this isn't taken seriously enough. Who knows it could potenyially kill someone who may otherwise have been resuscitated or assisted by CPR. Also a cough that's energetic enough causes other trouble like hypoxia and potential spasm right when the patient needs max Oh-Two. The Heart and Stroke foundation in Canada had this to say a while back at this link. Take a good St. John's Ambulance course or the American equivalent and refresh your CPR skills every couple of years. It's almost fun, I met my missus at one!

Thanx for bringing this forward mrwupy,

Victor K.

[edit on 27-5-2006 by V Kaminski]

Here is the bottom line of sorts.

If you really need CPR, you will be unable to cough or do much of anything other than lie there and hope somebody around you knows how to do it.

Coughing (and snoring for that matter) does cause an increase in inter-Thorasic pressures. It causes back pressure which in turn increases the pressure in the lungs which in turn puts pressure on the pulmonary capillary beds which can raise the blood pressure in the lungsd (aka Pulmonary hypertension) which would make it harder for your heart to get blood to the lungs.

I dare say trying to cough would make things worse by increasing myocardial oxygen consumption