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Posted on Jan 28, 2004, 12 p.m.
By Bill Freeman
If you think you
If you think you’re having a heart attack, coughing could save your life. According to Tadeusz Petelenz, a doctor at the Cardiological Foundation in Katowice, Poland, the pumping action caused by vigorous coughing can push blood through the body and to the brain, thus keeping the patient alive until medical help arrives. Statistics reveal that one in a 1,000 people in the West die from cardiac arrest each year, and that just one in ten victims of cardiac arrest survive without serious brain damage. Petelenz says that properly timed and performed coughs could enable a patient to remain conscious, and even regain an effective heart beat. Therefore he suggests that people deemed at high risk of cardiac arrest should be taught how to cough properly &endash; that is starting with a single cough every one to two seconds in bouts of five coughs. Petelenzy studied coughing in 115 patients at risk of cardiac arrest. The participants were taught how to cough properly at the first sign of an attack. Throughout the study 365 incidents occurred and the participants coughed as instructed. In 292 cases the symptoms disappeared, and medical attention was required in just 73 cases.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 2nd September 2003.
