posted
One of my employees recently forwarded an e-mail to our entire office. I'm not happy about that in itself, because no matter how well-intentioned the subject this time it makes it more likely other people will start forwarding crap. But this was an e-mail giving medical advice, and if the advice is incorrect I really, really don't want it to end up harming someone or preventing them from doing the right thing. The text of the e-mail follows, if you could just let me know if there is any bad advice in here, I'd really appreciate it.
This might be a lifesaver if we can remember the three questions!
Is It a Stroke?
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
*Ask the individual to smile. *Ask him or her to raise both arms. *Ask the person to speak a simple sentence.
If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting last February. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.
Heart Attack Self Help
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
Read this ... it could save your life!!
Let's say it's 6:15 p.m. and you're driving home (alone, of course) after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset and frustrated.
Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately, you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.
HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE
Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without letup until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.
Tell as many people as possible about this. It could save their lives!
I'm leary, of course, of anything that urges the recipients to send it to everyone they know, and I'll be speaking to this employee anyway about not forwarding stuff out that doesn't have documentation of where it came from. But if this advice is actually incorrect or harmful, I want to get a retraction out to the entire office.
I suppose I could have checked snopes... I'll go do that, too, just in case.
posted
The cough thing is kind of funny. I doubt anyone having a heart attack is going to be able to perform this little feat. I worked in EMS and a hospital for 10 years. I’ve seen a number of heart attack victims. I also wonder if the extra strain might send them over the edge. Usually it seems like the advice is always not to do anything other then get to the hospital. The stroke stuff seemed pretty specific for a certain type of stroke and generally would show up after the fact from nerve damage. Either should get to the hospital as soon as possible for the best outcome.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
True. The aspirin thing is out there. Guess I was really meaning physical. You know, the whole driving yourself to the hospital and what not.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Personally, I love that when giving warning signs for heart attacks, it refers to common symtoms experienced by men. Women do not normally experience those same symtoms and so they often do not receive treatment in time to save them (even some doctors, sadly, misdiagnose them), and yet more women die from heart attacks than breast cancer (which we all constantly hear about).
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:# Chest discomfort or uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the center of the chest that lasts longer than a few minutes, or comes and goes. # Spreading pain to one or both arms, back, jaw, or stomach. # Cold sweats and nausea.
Most sites do mention that women are less likely to think they're having a heart attack, but they don't list differing symptoms as the reason.
posted
Why do all my threads descend so quickly into fluff? Is it me? Do people just not take me seriously because I'm so frequently fluffy? Or am I like a dust-bunny magnet, sucking all the available fluffiness on the board to me?
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote: Why do all my threads descend so quickly into fluff? Is it me? Do people just not take me seriously because I'm so frequently fluffy? Or am I like a dust-bunny magnet, sucking all the available fluffiness on the board to me?
Maybe it's all the rhetorical questions.
Posts: 720 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
ElJay, When I came down with encephalitis, my husband and I thought I was having a stroke. My entire left side went numb, and I was slurring. So, I would say any of those strok-like things should be cause for immediate attention.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Yeah, Elizabeth. I have no problem with advice saying if something seems wrong get to a doctor. I have problems with advice suggesting people do something in the meantime that could end up killing them. And I definitely have problems with my not-medically-qualified employees forwarding medical advice to the entire office.
Edit: Or, for that matter, to anyone. It's just kinda stupid.
quote: Women may experience early symptoms of cardiovascular disease differently than men. The symptoms in women can be far subtler. If you or any woman you know shows these signs, seek medical attention right away.
Shortness of breath, often without chest pain of any kind Flu-like symptoms — specifically nausea, clamminess or cold sweats Unexplained fatigue, weakness or dizziness Pain in the chest, upper back, shoulders, neck, or jaw Feelings of anxiety, loss of appetite, discomfort
When I was a student nurse, I cared for a female heart attack patient whose only symptom was nausea. No chest pain, no shortness of breath, none of the typical heart attack symptoms.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I agree with Kayla and Ela, I have read that women are more likely than men to have asymptomatic heart attacks, which are more difficult to detect and diagnose.
As far as the cough cure, it sounds like common sense applied to medicine, which is often crap. The stroke thing is a little better, if someone is aphasic(cannot talk) they should go to the ER ASAP, IMHO.
I agree that spamming unsourced and questionable medical advice, though well-intentioned, is not a good idea.
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