If someone you know or indeed if you suspect you are having a heart attack, timely and sensible first-aid can make a major difference in the final outcome. First call for immediate help. If you are alone, dial an ambulance or your
physician. The next best thing to do is to sit quietly or lie down if you are feeling faint. Breathe slowly and deeply. And chew on an aspirin table as it thins the blood and improves the outcome significantly. If you suspect someone is having a heart attack, call for medical help immediately.
Prop the person up in a half-reclining position. Loosen his clothing. Open all the windows of the room to allow fresh air inside. If the patient is conscious and a chewable aspirin tablet is available, ask him to crunch it. Here are some other points to keep in mind: raise the person’s legs as this would divert vital blood to his brain and remove the pillow from underneath his head.
If the person faints or has lost consciousness, there is no time to lose. Administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Here’s how...
n Begin by ensuring that the patient’s airway is open. Lift his chin with one hand, and with the other tilt his head backwards. This would open up the airway, relieving it of any obstruction caused by the tongue or epiglottis.
n Next move on to mouth-to-mouth respiration. Keep the patient’s airway in the open position. Pinch his nose, place a fresh handkerchief in between and give two full breaths while maintaining an airtight seal with your mouth on his mouth. Look at his chest for simultaneous chest expansion.
n Now, feel for his carotid pulse. It lies in the groove by the side of the Adam’s apple. If no pulsation can be felt, begin cardiac massage. For this, locate the notch where the bottom rims of the two halves of the rib cage meet in the middle of the chest. Place the heel of one hand here. Now place your other hand on the top of the first one. Bring your shoulders directly over the patient’s breastbone and keeping your arms straight, depress down a good four to five cm. Then relax the pressure. But do not remove your hands. Compress again. Keep doing this at the rate of 80 to 100 compressions a minute. After every 15 compressions, give two mouth-to-mouth breaths.
n Keep at it, until expert medical assistance arrives.
The author is Senior Specialist, Safdarjung Hospital and Professor, VM Medical College and a well-known columnist