How to help an unconscious person with heart attack?
You may encounter a person lying already unconscious or you may be a present to the heart attack. Your actions are different in these two cases.In case the patient doesn't respond to your voice, and is lying without any presence of consciousness, then you must assure yourself that the patient is at least breathing and has pulse.
To verify if the patient is breathing you may
- Look at his/her chest - if it rises and falls, than it's ok
- Do they have a pulse? - it is very simple to verify if the pulse is present or not.
If the hand pulse is absent (what in low blood pressure may happen), than you must quickly check the carotid pulse, on the neck, laterally from pharynges (voice box).
You can check it on one side or on both sides, because we have 2 carotid arteries on each side of the voice box. I hope the photo will make you understand better the place. Practice right now the pulse zones on your hand and neck, also try on some others, it is not necessary that it to appear the same place to all the people.
If there is no carotid pulse, check for the heart beatings directly on the chest. The heart is usually situated in the left side, between the 2n and the 5th rib
If there is no beating, and the patient's skin color is changing into cyanotic, then these are signs that the patient ha a cardiac stop. If the ambulance hasn't arrived yet, then it will be necessary to perform the cardiac resuscitation
Sometimes, the patient may have pulse but is breathless. You must think of some suffocation/obstruction of the airways. Also, this may be accompanied by cyanosis (a change in color of the skin, as a result to hypoxemia)
To check if there is nothing obstructing the airflows (windwipe) - food, chewing gum, dentures, you must feel the inside of the mouth with one finger.
This is one of the reasons why usually bystanders avoid to offer their help when someone suffers a heart attack - the fear of transmissible viruses and diseases. Ok, I can assure you that only at finger contact with saliva you can't get a virus, even AIDS (until the finger has not bleedings and it is not bitten by the patient)
If you can, call an ambulance or ask someone to do this while you're checking the vital signs. Don't be shy and scream for help, no matter what the circumstances are - especially on the streets people aren't too receptive when someone falls down. So ask loudly for someone with a cell phone to call an ambulance If the airways are clear, but the patient still not breathing, and the ambulance hasn't arrived yet, then you must perform the mouth-to-mouth respiration with the patient. Again, to avoid the transmissible viruses or infections, use a napkin on the patient's mouth.
-
New articles
-
Popular articles
Resuscitation
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
How to help an unconscious with heart attack?
Prevent Heart Attack moving... in the bed - Free exercises
Calculate your BMI
Calculate your Body Mass Index, see if you are overweight or not
Download a Free ebook
Understand better Heart Attack in 20 articles. Download a copy now!
Heart disease statistics
1.5 million Americans suffer a heart attack each year (that's 1 heart attack every 20 seconds)
Emergency numbers
Do not ignore chest pain or discomfort if you think you might have a Heart Attack. Find the emergency phone numbers worldwide .
Women and Heart Attack
Read more on heart attack in women
Heart Attack in pregnancy
Cholesterol
Where does cholesterol come from?
Heart Attack Risks
10 signs of heart attack
What are the risk factors of heart attack? [video]