How to Help Someone Having an Heart Attack

Heart attack is regarded as one of the leading causes of death in humans. A heart attack can be lethal and warrants immediate medical attention.

You can significantly increase the odds of survival of a person having a cardiac arrest, if you know what steps to take. Read on to find out more.

1. Call for Ambulance

If you find someone is having a heart attack, your first step should be to call an ambulance. A heart attack can only be treated by trained medical professionals and you must get the patient into the emergency room as soon as possible.

2. Identify Early

Symptoms of heart attack start surfacing a few hours before the actual attack, which may include cold sweat, fatigue, shortness of breath, intermittent pain in the chest and numbness or pain in the left arm. Identifying these symptoms early can help immensely in treating a heart attack.

3. Deliver First Aid

Have the person rest in a comfortable position and ensure that the respiration or blood flow is not constrained by any tight-fitting clothes. The most important thing is to maintain your calm and help the patient to maintain his or her calm. The next step should be to check whether the person is conscious and is properly breathing or not.

4. CPR

If the person has lost consciousness and is not breathing, it is advisable to administer CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation. CPR is a combination of rescue breathing and chest compressions. Place your palm right between the nipples and the other hand on top of the first hand. Position your body weight above your hands and give about 30 compressions. Each compression should press down a few inches into the chest and should be given in a rapid motion.

5. Resuscitate Breathing

Resuscitate breathing or mouth-to-mouth breathing should be delivered after the compressions. Tilt up the chin of the patient, then close their nostrils with your fingers and cover the mouth of the patient with yours. Blow a deep breath into the lungs of the patient so that the chest should rise.

6. Administer medication

There are drugs such as aspirin or nitro-glycerine that can help to save the life of a patient having a cardiac arrest. You will need to seek medical counsel for administering nitro-glycerine; however, you can give the patient aspirin if he/she has not lost his consciousness.

7. Emergency Aids

Oxygen support or AED (automated external defibrillators) can also help greatly to increase the odds of survival for a heart attack patient.

Until medical assistance arrives, it is very important that you maintain your calm and keep following the requisite steps. The main aim is to prevent the patient’s condition from worsening until help arrives.