Self-CPR is a Hoax and Won’t Save You if Your Heart Stops Beating

This Facebook post never seems to go away and is false.

Courtesy of Chat GPT AI Generator

No matter how many times it’s been debunked, the online untruth that if your heart stops beating and you repeatedly cough, it will buy you enough time to get help, is a lie. This dangerous Internet myth likely started in the late 1990s. First, it was circulated by email chains. A decade later, it started making the rounds on Facebook. Friends have asked me about it.

The rumor has a minute thread of truth. I should know. When I worked in the cardiac catherization lab in the 1980s and 90s, we would tell the patient to cough if their heart stopped beating on the table.

“Cough-CPR” sometimes works in the cath lab because we are constantly monitoring the patient’s blood pressure, oxygen saturation, pulse, EKG, and heart rate. Pressure around the heart fluctuates with coughing, forcing blood toward the heart and brain.

But sometimes it does not work. I have seen it work when the heart stoppage is due to a very fast or very slow heart rhythm, and it may temporarily move blood along until the heartbeat is restored to normal. This is done either with intravenous medications or chest electroshock therapy. However, there are other causes where it doesn’t work, like a dissected (torn) coronary artery or an air embolus to the heart.

However, all of these are a far cry from trying this on yourself if your heart stops beating. First, there is a roughly 15- 30 second delay between when your heart stops beating and when you begin to lose consciousness. There is not enough time to react, even if your iWatch alerts you. Second, it often takes more than one cough to restore adequate circulation.

How Cough CPR Works

• Sudden Pressure Changes: A forceful cough sharply increases intrathoracic pressure, thereby pushing blood out of the heart.
• Blood Ejection: This sudden spike in pressure physically squeezes the blood vessels and the heart, forcing blood out of the chest and into the aorta.
• Maintaining Flow: By coughing in a rhythmic, repeated pattern, a conscious patient can mechanically maintain a minimal level of blood pressure and cerebral perfusion.
• Potential Rhythm Correction: In certain instances, the mechanical pressure and resulting neurological reflexes can momentarily correct or “break” a lethal arrhythmia.

Coughing alone will usually not restore a normal heartbeat and therefore is not a useful form of CPR.

There is zero evidence or credible reports of someone “coughing” themselves out of a cardiac arrest. Please stop forwarding these emails and sharing these posts.

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