Red Cross Blogs

First aid: how to mend a broken heart

By Ben Stickley
February 12, 2010 at 2:02 pm

On Valentine’s Day, first aid might not be at the forefront of your mind, but why not find out how you could mend a broken heart? Basic first aid knowledge could help you save a loved one and give them the best present they have ever had.

Just a small amount of know-how could make a huge difference…

How to mend a broken heart.

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Transcript:

First aid podcast

Hello, and welcome to Red Cross Radio. I’m Ben Stickley.
This is the second in a series of podcasts going through common first aid scenarios and how you could react to them.

For this podcast, as it’s Valentines day on Sunday, we are going to look at how to mend a broken heart! However your Valentine’s day goes, these tips might well help you save someone’s life.
We are going to go through a couple of scenarios. While you’re listening, have a think about what you would do. After each one, Brad Smith, a Red Cross first aid expert, will explain what the correct answer is:

Scenario one:
You’re playing in a badminton tournament and enjoying a well-earned break in the bar. All of a sudden, you hear someone cry for help from the court. You rush in to find a woman collapsed on the floor.
Brad, what would you do?

I’d remove any dangers and check the woman’s response by talking in both her ears and gently shaking her shoulders.

Assuming I don’t get a response, I’d open her airway by putting one hand on her forehead, placing two fingers under her chin and gently lifting and tilting her head back.

I’d then check for breathing for ten seconds by putting my ear near her mouth. I’d be listening for breathing, and feeling for her breath on my face, as well as looking down her body to see if I could see any movement.
Assuming she’s not breathing normally, I’d ask a bystander to phone for an ambulance and tell them to say I’m starting CPR on an unconscious casualty.

I’d also ask another bystander to go and look for an automatic external defibrillator – or AED. This is a machine that’s used to deliver an electronic shock to the heart to try and restore a rhythm. It’s a portable version of the equipment you see in hospitals, and they’re becoming more and more common in health clubs. I’ll tell you more about AEDs in a future podcast.

While I’m waiting for the AED and an ambulance, I’d start CPR – that’s cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (now you know why it’s so frequently abbreviated!) – which is 30 chest compressions followed by two rescue breaths. I’d do CPR until the ambulance crew tells me they’re taking over, the casualty starts to recover, or I need to start using the AED. If you are concerned about giving rescue breaths, you can just give chest compressions.

You can watch a video on how to perform CPR on our website, at redcross.org.uk/cpr

Scenario two:
You are at work. You have a colleague who’s over 50, smokes heavily, has a penchant for large lunches – well, come to think of it, he likes large breakfasts and dinners, too, and he has a total aversion to exercise. He starts to complain of central chest pain, which he thinks could be indigestion. This pain then spreads to his arms and he says he is not feeling well at all.

What would you do?

Brad?

This sounds like a heart attack, Ben. Especially if he complains of a persistent vice-like pain in his chest and it’s spreading to one or both arms. It could also spread to his neck and jaw. Some people can also feel feel sick, sweaty, or short of breath when they’re having a heart attack.

My aim should be to make him comfortable and take the strain off his heart. I’d put him in the ‘W’ position, by supporting his head and shoulders and bending his knees, using cushions to provide added support.

Can’t picture that? Imagine sitting upright on the floor, shuffling backwards to lean against the wall and lifting your knees up so your feet are flat on the floor. That’s the position you’re aiming to get your colleague in.

I’d call 999 and tell them I’m dealing with a heart attack.

Then I’d ask him if he’s allergic to aspirin. If not, I would give him a 300mg aspirin tablet and advise him to chew it slowly. Aspirin, unlike other pain killers like paracetamol or ibuprofen, has a blood thinning quality which is important in treating a heart attack. A heart attack is caused by a blood clot that obstructs the blood supply to part of the heart muscle. By thinning the blood, aspirin helps maintain blood flow and stops the clot from spreading.

More men than women suffer from heart disease resulting in heart attacks, and risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, bad diet and obesity.

So there you go Ben – there’s a couple of ways to mend a broken heart this Valentine’s day – but of course I hope our listeners don’t have to use them!

If you want your own first aid question answered, visit our blog site, blogs.redcross.org.uk/firstaid and ask us direct. We’ll be featuring more scenarios in another podcast soon. You never know, your scenario might be next.

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