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Category: Health & Wellness / Topics: Advice, Guidance & Mentoring Health Care Trouble

Intelligent Bystanders

by Dan Seagren

Posted: October 6, 2007

Quite recently, the medical profession has made it known that we can have a positive senior moment rather than a negative one…

If he or she (or you yourself) has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association’s at an annual meeting. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and hopefully prevent brain damage.

What should we do in the case of a possible heart attack? A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this and tells 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved. Read on. It could save a life, maybe yours. Let’s say it’s 6:15 pm and you’re driving home alone but the traffic is nerve-racking. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home.

 Unfortunately, you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, may have 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. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

These are not my thoughts but come from what I believe is a reliable source and could transform an agonizing, frustrating senior moment into something potentially life saving



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Dan Seagren is an active retiree whose writings reflect his life as a Pastor, author of several books, and service as a Chaplain in a Covenant Retirement Community.

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Posted: October 6, 2007   Accessed 141 times

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