Publisher's Note: We have run this column before, and with former President Clinton unexpectedly in the hospital awaiting heart surgery, it seemed a good time to run it again. You just might not have a Secret Service Agent at your elbow when you need one! Let's say it's 6:17 p.m. and you're driving home (alone, of course) after an unusually hard day on the job. Not only was the workload extraordinarily heavy, you also had a disagreement with your boss and, no matter how hard you tried, he just wouldn't see your side of the situation. You're really upset and the more you think about it the more uptight you become. All of a sudden, 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. What can you do? You've been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course neglected to tell you how to perform it on yourself. Many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack. What can you do? Without help, a person whose heart stops beating properly begins to feel faint and has 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 letting 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. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a phone and, between breaths, call for help. You'll be giving yourself CPR with this technique. Tell as many other people as possible about this - it could save their life! ~ RL *Publisher's Note: Ronn received this from an RN friend. We ran it by our heath care team who responded: "Showed it around. Everyone agrees that it might just work as it creates negative pressure in the chest cavity. But as it has not been officially sanctioned, there is no guarantee. OK to publish with the proviso that it is sure better to do that than nothing as long as a prayer goes with each cough (my own thoughts)." We lost a dear friend in Montana to a heart attack on the stream. He often fished alone. He was found there the next day. This might have saved his life. We thank Ronn for sending it on to us all! ~ DLB