You may have received an email that describes how coughing can fend off or prevent a heart attack. The message usually starts with a story about how you’re driving home after a bad day of work and all the sudden you start to experience severe pain or pressure in your chest. When the pain begins radiating into your arm and up into your jaw, you panic, realizing you’re five miles from the nearest hospital. What to do?
This popular, but potentially hazardous, email suggests that you force yourself to produce a series of vigorous, deep and repeated coughs which will squeeze your heart and keep blood moving. The Cough CPR advice is attributed to a study conducted by the Rochester General Hospital.
Unfortunately, this information is not true and may prevent some people from taking the correct actions. Hospital administrators disavow this information by stating, “We can find no record that an article even resembling this was produced by Rochester General Hospital within the last 20 years.”
The erroneous email first surfaced in 1999 and came back to life (no pun intended) in the spring of 2004. In early 2010 this potentially dangerous post began making the rounds all over again.
If you happen to receive this email, please assist in putting it to rest once and for all. Delete, disregard, and decline to forward – to friends and enemies alike – is the appropriate response when receiving unsolicited health advice via email. Incorrect advice of this type may be downright dangerous and could prove harmful, or even deadly, when followed by unsuspecting readers.
What Should You Do? Know the warning signs and be able to recognize them in
yourself and others. Take immediate action by calling 9-1-1. If driving, pull off the road and use your cell phone to call 9-1-1. Continuing to drive while experiencing cardiac
arrest puts you and others at additional risk of injury if you lose consciousness. If you are helping someone else and the victim becomes unconscious and stops breathing, begin CPR. If you have access to an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), administer as early as possible.
Heart Attack Warning Signs in Men:
This popular, but potentially hazardous, email suggests that you force yourself to produce a series of vigorous, deep and repeated coughs which will squeeze your heart and keep blood moving. The Cough CPR advice is attributed to a study conducted by the Rochester General Hospital.
Unfortunately, this information is not true and may prevent some people from taking the correct actions. Hospital administrators disavow this information by stating, “We can find no record that an article even resembling this was produced by Rochester General Hospital within the last 20 years.”
The erroneous email first surfaced in 1999 and came back to life (no pun intended) in the spring of 2004. In early 2010 this potentially dangerous post began making the rounds all over again.
If you happen to receive this email, please assist in putting it to rest once and for all. Delete, disregard, and decline to forward – to friends and enemies alike – is the appropriate response when receiving unsolicited health advice via email. Incorrect advice of this type may be downright dangerous and could prove harmful, or even deadly, when followed by unsuspecting readers.
What Should You Do? Know the warning signs and be able to recognize them in
yourself and others. Take immediate action by calling 9-1-1. If driving, pull off the road and use your cell phone to call 9-1-1. Continuing to drive while experiencing cardiac
arrest puts you and others at additional risk of injury if you lose consciousness. If you are helping someone else and the victim becomes unconscious and stops breathing, begin CPR. If you have access to an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), administer as early as possible.
Heart Attack Warning Signs in Men:
- Chest discomfort – Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back.
- Discomfort in other areas of the upper body – Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in the arm, back, neck, jaw or stomach.
- Shortness of breath
- Other signs – These may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness
- Severe indigestion
- Discomfort in the shoulder blades that radiates toward the neck
- Pain or discomfort in the jaw area
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