ST CLAIR AMBULANCE

HEALTH AND FAMILY AWARENESS INFORMATION

provided by Jenifer Goodson

 

         "Act In Time", the new campaign for the American Heart Association is to increase the public’s awareness of a heart attack and calling 911. Do you know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack? Do you and your family know CPR? What can you do to reduce the risk of a heart attack?

In the movies, a heart attack is usually shown by someone clutching their chest and they fall over. This happens really fast, but in real life this is often not the case. Most heart attacks start slowly with little or mild pain and the pain is not always over the chest area. Chest pain or chest discomfort usually starts in the center of the chest and does not go away after a few minutes. The pain might come and go and might feel like someone is sitting on your chest. Other descriptions of the pain might be squeezing or pressure. Discomfort or pain might affect other areas of your body such as one or both arms (more prominent in left arm), back, jaw, neck, or stomach. A person might also experience nausea, shortness of breath, lightheadedness, or break out into a cold sweat.

 

        So if you or someone you know has any of the above signs and symptoms CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY. Ambulance personnel have the first line medications to give a person who might be having a heart attack. All ambulance personnel are also trained in CPR and have the equipment to help a person who is having a heart attack. Ambulance services are also staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you are with someone who has a sudden loss of consciousness and the breathing is not normal and there is no movement from that person, CALL 911. The dispatchers can walk you through how to check if a person’s breathing and if they have a pulse. If that person is in cardiac arrest, dispatchers can also walk you through CPR until help arrives.

You can reduce your risk of a heart attack by taking care of yourself. So what can you do? Exercise, watch what you eat, watch your blood pressure and cholesterol, and take care of your diabetes. Keep your stress level down. Make sure you let your doctor know if there is a family history of heart problems.

 

        Want to learn CPR? Contact your local ambulance service or hospital. Also check with the YMCA or contact the American Heart Association. St. Clair Ambulance offers CPR classes for the public once a month throughout the year. For more information call 636-629-2216. Our local chapter for the AHA is in St. Louis. You can call them at 314-692-5635 or visit www.americanheart.org.

February 3^rd is National Wear Red Day. Please join everyone in supporting women’s heart disease by wearing red. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women. So this Friday wear RED