Hope this will never be relevant for you, but sure is worth a look...

A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets this message sends it to 10 people you can bet that it will save at least one life.  Read this...It could save your life!!

Let's say it's 6.15pm and you're driving home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job.  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 k's 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 in on yourself.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

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, has only about 10seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatly 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.

Audrey Trenerry - Depts of General Practice,  Medicine & Surgery,  Noarlunga Health Service, Noarlunga, SA 5168