If someone suddenly has a heart attack, the following steps should be taken immediately:
Stay calm and don’t panic. Due to nervousness, you will not be able to take right decisions and the situation may become worse.
Immediately call 108, call an ambulance, follow the steps given below until the ambulance arrives:
If there is any aspirin, give it to the patient. Aspirin helps thin the blood and can reduce the damage caused by a heart attack. If the person can take aspirin, give him an aspirin tablet and ask him to wash it down with warm water. Aspirin can help reduce blood clots and heart attack blockages.
If the patient is not conscious, give him CPR. To give CPR, press the center of the patient’s chest. Give compressions at a rate of 100 times per minute. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an important life-saving technique, which can play a vital role in saving lives during a heart attack or cardiac arrest. This helps maintain blood flow and oxygen to the vital organs of the patient’s body until medical care arrives. To do this, push hard and fast on the center of the person’s chest.
How to start CPR: Two tasks are done in CPR:
A) Mouth to Mouth Respiration
B) Chest Compression
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation or CPR method has three main procedures called ABC.
A = Airway Step: Opening the windpipe. We have mentioned this above.
B = Breathing Step: If the victim is not breathing, immediately give mouth to mouth respiration i.e. give artificial breath to the victim. To give artificial respiration to the victim through mouth, close the nostrils of the victim with your left hand and give artificial respiration twice through mouth.
C = Circulatory Step: This is also called Chest Compression because in this process the victim’s chest is pressed to activate the heart and circulate blood in the body. The process of chest compression is given in detail below.
First of all, make the victim lie down on a solid surface and sit on one side of the victim on his knees.
Place the paw of one hand in the middle of the victim’s chest / sternum bone where the chest bones meet. This place should be in the middle of the chest between both the nipples.
After this, keep the other hand on top of the first hand and tie the fingers. Keep your arms and elbows straight.
After that, give direct pressure down to the chest bones of the victim by 1.5 to 2 inches or 4 to 5 cm. This process of giving pressure on the chest should be done at a speed of 100 times per minute.
Do this process of applying and releasing pressure 30 times at a time. The time of applying and releasing pressure should be equal.
While giving Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation or CPR to the victim, artificial respiration should be given 2 times and chest compression should be given 30 times. The ratio of chest compression and artificial respiration should be kept at 30:2.
Continue giving CPR until emergency help arrives or the victim begins breathing normally.
Dr. Piyush Trivedi,
Raj Legislative Assembly Jaipur.