Why is it bad to lay down if you are having a heart attack?!
Question: Why is it bad to lay down if you are having a heart attack?
Answers:
I don't know where you heard that but it is incorrect. 2 reasons for laying down if a heart attack is suspected. 1) Laying down will take the strain off of the heart by trying to overcome gravity in returning blood to the heart. If you have every taken your blood pressure while standing it will be different than laying down (otherwise known as orthostatic blood pressure). This is because the heart needs to work harder to overcome the force of gravity pulling the blood down. This is also why we get lightheaded if we stand up too quickly. 2) Safety. If one is truly having a heart attack they will eventually loose consciousness and fall. I have look after many patients in the ER and ICU that have other injuries from falling while having a heart attach. What makes this worse is that these patients usually have a known cardiac history and are on blood thinners to help prevent stroke and heart attacks. Therefore the injuries that they can sustain can be severe to life threatening because of bleeding. I hope this clarifies things for you.
RJ
18 yrs of ICU, ER and operating room nursing. :)
Have the person sit down, rest, and try to keep calm.
# Loosen any tight clothing.
# Ask if the person takes any chest pain medication for a known heart condition.
# Help the person take the medication (usually nitroglycerin, which is placed under the tongue).
# If the pain does not go away promptly with rest or within 3 minutes of taking nitroglycerin, call for emergency medical help.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/…
Probably bad to be pacing around, making the heart race even more, or if you collapse--breaking an arm or something on the way down. Never heard of that, though. I mean, guess what you're going to be doing in the hospital during and after a heart attack? Laying down.
I haven`t heard any thing like that in my life ,patients with heart attack are not even able to talk .
You need to see patients with heart attack ,you will never forget that in your life .
I am physician