Cough CPR: A Lie That Lives on Two Decades Later

Cough cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a technique that started as a hoax twenty years ago at around 1999. It can be defined as personal induced coughing with systematic deep heavy breathing after every two seconds.

It stated that an individual suffering from an irregular heartbeat or cardiac dysrhythmia can induce a cough to rescue themselves. The rumor mongers alleged that if an individual followed that advice, he or she could prolong the duration and try to reach a health facility before they fall unconscious.

Self-CPR which also used to reference cough Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is NOT taught in CPR courses.

In fact, this procedure is highly discouraged or may not be possible at all because some cardiac arrests are sudden. However, it can be used in emergencies under the supervision of a doctor. That does not mean it is a life-saving technique, it is not recommended or endorsed by the medical field.

There is a wide spread perception that cough CPR can help individuals who are about to have heart attack or cardiac arrest. One of the contributors to this is the failure to distinguish differences of heart attack and cardiac arrest.

Heart Attack Vs Cardiac Arrest

The general Tom, Hick and Harry would refer to both as the same condition—which is wrong. A heart attack is a heart condition where there is a blood clot in one of the arteries and results to the dead tissues.

The symptom vary differently but the most common ones are severe chest pains and a heavy discomfort in your body.

This heart attack condition requires urgent medical care preferably a surgery that would unblock the affected artery. Also the condition can be also being treated using specific drugs.

A cardiac arrest is the other heart condition that affect its electrical aspect. Its electrical system malfunctions and interferes with its routine functioning. Many of these conditions are treated by a procedure known as electrical cardio version.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a life-saving technique. CPR is given when an individual has agonal respiration or is not responsive. Time is a vital determinant of the success rate of CPR.

CPR first aid consists of the application of rescue breathing as well as chest compressions. Compressions of the chest should start as soon as possible. If the bystander or rescuer is skilled and confident, then mouth to mouth resuscitation should follow.

The technique assists in reestablishing the unconstrained flow of blood. CPR improves the chances of survival when done on time, and in the right way. The process is important in saving lives because it helps avert tissue damage due to a lack of oxygen.

The use of defibrillation is another optional CPR process that should be carried out during a sudden cardiac arrest. It is process of applying an electric current to restore the normal rhythm of the sino-atrial node often done by an AED or automated defibrillator.

Therefore, the cough CPR hoax is a lie. To substantiate these facts, let’s look at the symptoms of heart attack and cardiac arrest.

1.      Heart Attack.

As stated above, heart attack causes the heart to stop pumping blood due to a clogged artery, often due to a blood clot.

  1. The person suffers a chest discomfort or pain,
  2. fatigue or lethargy and one can
  3. A pressure sensation in their chest
  4. They may also discomfort in the upper parts of the body. It can bring pain in back, stomach, both arms and neck.
  5. The major symptom is loss of breath where a person experiences difficulty in breathing— often caused by tightness in the chest.

With those symptoms, it cough CPR can be difficult when someone is under a heart attack.

Again, if done vigorously per the experts who propose it, a victim’s situation may worsen—it wears out last of energy a person has left.

2.     Cardiac Arrest.

A cardiac arrest is where the heart stops functioning and does not pump blood. The cause of this condition is the electrical malfunction of the heart which triggers irregular heartbeats. Some of the symptoms include;

  1. Very heavy chest discomfort
  2. Loss and shortness of breath
  3. General body weakness and dizziness
  4. Loss of consciousness.

Again with such symptoms, applying coughing will worsen the situation and can lead to loss of life.

Moving forward, we track all the rumors on cough resuscitation to their routes and understand its influence on public understanding on CPR.

The Cough Resuscitation Hearsay

There many multiple versions of the cough resuscitation rumor roaming the world. One of them was captured in a study commissioned by the Resuscitation Council in the United Kingdom.

The enquiries it got sought to dig deeper into cough-CPR and how one can survive heart attack while alone

The council was concerned with the misleading information that was spreading as self-CPR advice. The council advised against the notion that if someone feels he or she is getting a heart attack should cough repeatedly until they reach a hospital.

But the world should understand that a heart attack is not as same a cardiac arrest. In fact, it was determined that a person under a heart attack who tries induce a cough CPR could worsen the situation or even lead to death.

Cough CPR was born from a few misleading articles. They quoted some of the instances where if a person suffers cardiac arrest, they may be able to maintain a heartbeat. And then went on to argue that the person also can prolong it by continuous coughing which studies have so far discredited.

Advocates of Cough CPR should also remember that when a person is under a cardiac arrest, they fall unconscious a warning— that’s why it is often referred to as sudden cardiac arrest or SCA.

They should also realize and understand that when a person is about to have a cardiac arrest or even heart attack, they are usually too weak to even sustain a cough that can maintain circulation.  

The institution concluded and advised the people that if they feel that they are about to have a cardiac arrest of even a heart attack, they should call emergency assistance. These emergency services will direct them what to do while waiting the assistance. Since the first cough CPR article hit the internet, the rumor has spread to a world-class myth.

Recently, a post was shared on Facebook about surviving heart attack when alone. This article was used to describe ways that an individual experiencing certain symptoms can do.

It went on to state that such individuals should assist themselves by vigorously coughing from time to time. But the article failed to tell readers the risks that accompany the provided procedures.

The spread is not uncommon in a world of social platforms when you can share rumors with the click of a button.

It started in the late 1999 with an article that was shared them have been resurfaced through various platforms that are internet based.

Here’s an excerpt of part of the article that appeared in the 1990s in snopes.com.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed in order. Without help the person whose heart stops beating properly 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 let up 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.

When bodies like the American Heart Association and UK’s Resuscitation Council saw these rumors catching fire, they moved to slow the wide spread of this life-threatening piece of information.

However, the articles spreading this story still are still available in social media pages.

Recently (MAY 2019) articles that were shared in the social media had a good number of viewers. For instance, the article on how to survive heart attack when alone has been viewed by almost half a million times.

To be precise, a research was done to see how many people view and discuss cough CPR and the outcome showed that around 42,000 people had liked the page spreading the hoax. Likewise a total of 418,000 individuals had shared that information in their social media pages.

When one does a search on cough CPR, a total of 21,800 results can be seen. In the same research, it was noted that those searching cough CPR have fluctuated in popularity among people in the world. This has happened over the last 12 months when this research was conducted in 2018.

Facts about Cough Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

There several facts people try to ignore in order to justify their promotion of self-resuscitation commonly known as cough resuscitation.

 Here are some of them.

1.     Cough CPR can cause injuries.

When a person starts having a heart attack or suspect signs of cardiac arrests, they should seek emergency medical assistance.

 One of the best practices is for them to make a call (911) to emergency medical services providers and wait for help.

Unfortunately, many of the people are made to believe that coughing while in such situation will increase their chances of survival.

What they don’t know is that this could be a way of inducing slow death. Trying to induce a cough in the case of a heart attack may actually risk your life. In heart attacks, a blood clot usually happens in one of the heart arteries.

Those clots usually lead to death of a tissue. By inducing certain form of a cough, it increases pressure of blood flow and can cause those blocked arteries to burst. Vigorously induced coughs can also have a dire and critical effect on the brain.

In cardiac arrest cases, the heart stops functioning and pumping blood. The cause of this condition is the electrical malfunction of the heart which makes it to have irregular heartbeats.

In such conditions, once should resort to an emergency treatment by use of electrolytes which applies mild shock to the heart in order to restart it.

Any hearsay stories that cough CPR can be used as a precaution to prolong consciousness is not true. Coughing in the case of a heart attack also reduces chances of survival.

Since the heart has stopped pumping blood, coughing will make blood overflow in the heart.  Therefore, it causes the heart to collapse due to the blood overflow triggered by vigorous coughing.

2.    Cough Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is a hoax.

Another fact that the society should be aware that most information about the Cough CPR are false and does not have a basis in the medical field.

For instance, when an article on how one can survive heart attack when alone was spread on the social media, it met a lot of resistance from medical practitioners.

Several health associations such as American Health Association (AHA), Resuscitation Council in the United Kingdom have disputed those effects. They argue that there is no medical ground that can be proved that cough-CPR does assist.

Though to some extent, they agree with some aspects of cough CPR, this self CPR procedure is only recommended to in the presence of a medical practitioner.

What is Cardiopulmonary resuscitation?

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a life-saving technique. CPR is given when an individual has agonal respiration or is not responsive. How soon you start issuing CPR will determine survival.

CPR first aid consists of the application of rescue breathing as well as chest compressions. Compressions of the chest should start as soon as possible. If the bystander or rescuer is skilled and confident, then mouth to mouth resuscitation should follow.

The technique assists in reestablishing the unconstrained flow of blood. CPR improves the chances of survival when done on time, and in the right way. The process is important in saving lives because it helps avert tissue damage due to a lack of oxygen.

The use of defibrillation is another optional CPR process that should be carried out during a sudden cardiac arrest. It is process of applying an electric current to restore the normal rhythm of the sino-atrial node often done by an AED or automated defibrillator.

It should be understood that CPR should be administered when patient’s heart stops beating or when one is;

  1. Not responsive or unresponsive to touch, sounds
  2. Unconscious
  3. Not breathing or breathing abnormally—some sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) cases begin with gasping. In this cases resuscitation should begin ASAP.

 In such situation, when one has the knowledge of CPR, he or she should start the procedure awaiting medical emergency services to come.

Therefore, individuals are encouraged to take training on CPR and first aid. This can help one learn and understand when and how CPR should be administered.

There are also situations when CPR should stop!  Training in CPR can help you understand when to stop.

Here are the cases when you should avoid CPR.

  1. If the victim starts showing signs of consciousness

Of course, stop CPR when as soon as the victim recovers from their unconsciousness or responsiveness.  Do not continue with chest compressions after the victim is conscious.

  1. If the bystander’s life is in danger.

At all cost, your life is the first priority in case of an emergency. If one feels it is no longer safe to perform the procedure, it should be stopped.

  1. If the person has a DNR wearable or tattoo

Do not Resuscitate is an optional order (the patient decides if they want it) that a doctor writes for a patient that stops, prevents, or burrs anyone from initiating CPR on the patient.

Some patients wear a DNR necklace or have a tattoo on their chest to inform bystanders that they do not wish to be resuscitated.

  1. When the victim has passed away

When a patient has died, there is no need to perform a CPR procedure since it will be of no use. Always check the victim’s pulse from time to time while continuing CPR.

To address this issue, American Heart Association (AHA) together with another organization launched a project to educate American people on how to perform CPR.

The organizations created websites and also a digital application where procedures of CPR are posted so as every citizen can access them and perform successful CPR if necessary.

Get CPR Training and Certification

CPR certification is a combination of problem solving techniques and procedures used in case of medical emergencies. Such life-threatening medical emergency includes cardiac arrests, stroke and other forms of emergences such as drowning.

As we have referred it as a combination of problem solving techniques, these trainings include First Aid, Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

They impart knowledge and skills to help them handle emergencies and act appropriately without endangering lives.

There many benefits of having taking a CPR certification course. Some of them include;

1. You save lives:  Heart conditions are becoming very popular among individuals. Equipping yourself with CPR training can, therefore, mean saving lots of lives. A CDC research that showed that about 350,000 cases of heart related complications happened out of hospital. It also revealed that around 88% of such cases do not survive. If people around them are trained on CPR, significant number can have a chance to live longer.

2. You get empowered:  When one is CPR-certified, they one empowered because they required can offer assistances using the skills they’ve acquired. It can also give them confidence while performing the procedure during emergencies.

3. Understand different CPR techniques: When one is certified in CPR, it means they have taken CPR classes. During training, they learn the differences between adult, baby and child CPR which is important in rescuing people.

4. Build your CV: These days’ employer prefers staffs with CPR training than those without. If CPR training is a must-have in your job application, you stand a higher chance of winning the position.

Earning a CPR certification or recertification is now a hassle-free process you can do online (or over the internet) from the comfort of your home. As long as you have a mobile gadget or PC (personal computer) and access to the internet.

The American Academy of CPR and First Aid Inc., for instance, offers an online CPR certification course that you can accomplish in less than an hour. This federally-accepted platform offers reasonably-priced recourses to people looking for CPR knowledge and skills.

Affordable is not the limit for The American Academy of CPR and First Aid Inc., you can now take a free course, and earn a CPR certificate!

All you have to do is visit their official CPR website, view summarized course content and take an examination. All these can occur in less than an hour and so one must not wait longer to get an online CPR certificate or renew what they already have.

Final Words

Cough CPR is a make-believe story that will is destined to run out of tarmac soon! As more and more people get CPR training and get savvy, we expect myths like these to come to an end.

Not every time or day will you encounter a casualty who needs CPR— that can raise the question; is there any need to learn CPR? It can be worrying meeting casualties who need CPR procedures if you don’t know what to do.