Heart Attack Survival Checklist: Are You Ready?

Heart attacks can affect anyone at any point of time. Gone are the times when people used to believe that only the elderly can get a heart disease. Not the young generation is as likely to get a heart disease as anyone else. There could be a future situation when you are alone at home and suddenly start to experience terrible chest pain. Therefore, you must learn to how to survive a heart attack when there is no one around to help. Severe chest pain that may radiate to left upper arm, jaw, or neck and profuse sweating are the two classical symptoms of a heart attack.

Survival Checklist

• Stop what you are doing and immediately call for emergency help.
• Place yourself at a safe place for rest.
• Take aspirin, if available, but only if you are not allergic to it.
• Wait for medical help to arrive.

Things to Avoid

• Do not take nitroglycerin, which is a prescription medicine advised temporarily to improve blood flow to the heart.
• Stop coughing repeatedly in an attempt to stop a heart attack.
• Do not apply pressure to the chest as it only helps in case heart stops beating altogether.
• Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation should only be performed in case of cardiac arrest. Stop asking someone to give it to you while your heart is still beating.