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Save Your Own Life

How a chair, rocks, aspirin, and a scarf can keep youalive in 12 do-or-die emergencies.

By Pamela F. Gallin, MDFromReader's Digest

How to Survive ...

ve all heard the miracle stories: The Boy Scout who survived for four days in themountains of North Carolina. The Montana couple who fought off a bear. The guy in Utahwho cut off his arm to free himself from under a fallen boulder. You

ve probably read manystories like this in Reader

s Digest (like the one on page 102 about a couple stranded inthe snow) and wondered what you

d do in the same situation, but you always assumedfreak accidents would never happen to you.And you

d be wrong. While your odds of having a heart attack are much higher than findingyourself in most of these scenarios, strange things happen every day. For example, almost2.5 million people called poison centers for help in 2006. In 2004, 112,000 people died ofinjuries from falls, drownings, and other accidents. In 2006, search-and-rescue rangers inour national parks responded to nearly 4,000 calls, more than a third of them for peoplewho were also sick or injured. Every year, around 3,000 succumb to choking.Another 400 are struck by lightning, and 67 of those die from it. How do you keep yourselfout of the statistics?Besides calling 911, here

s what to do in 12 life-threatening emergencies when no one

saround to help.

LOST IN THE WILDERNESS

To avoid becoming the lead story on the evening news, be prepared. Before you head outon a hike, check the weather (you can find forecasts for many wilderness areas atwunderground.com), take plenty of water, and make sure someone knows where you

ll beand when you

ll be back. Bring clothes to keep you warm when wet, like a water-repellent jacket, says Laurence Gonzales, author of Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why.Avoid cotton, which traps moisture. “The search-and-rescue people call it death cloth,” hesays.“Expect to get lost, and check often to make sure you

re still on the trail,” says John Dill, asearch-and-rescue ranger at Yosemite National Park in California. “The minute you thinkyou might not be on the trail, stop.” “First, you

ve got to acknowledge you

re in trouble,”adds Gonzales. If you

re not alone, focusing on the needs of others can help hold your ownfears at bay. Other keys to survival: staying observant and remembering to rest. Keeping asense of humor helps too—it reduces stress and promotes creative thinking.The surest way to get out alive is to take basic precautions, such as stowing a survival kit inyour car. Gonzales

s includes waterproof matches and chunks from fake fireplace logs forstarting a fire, a folding saw for cutting branches, and a plastic tarp and cord for making

shelter. Don

t forget an emergency blanket, a good knife, a first-aid kit, a flashlight,batteries, snacks, and water.In general, people who try to find their own way out fare worse than those who stay put,says Richard N. Bradley, MD, of the American Red Cross. Find shelter before dark, and tryto keep dry. Stay visible so anyone searching can see you. In a wide-open area, make asignal with colorful gear, make a big X out of rocks, or dig a shallow trench, says Dill. “Thetop layer of soil is a different color. Scrape it away and make straight lines, which are easyto spot from above.”You can go several days without eating, so in most cases, you

re better off not foraging forfood, since there are lots of poisonous plants in the wild, says Dr. Bradley. You need to stayhydrated, so if you run out of water, it

s usually better to drink from a stream with suspectwater than to go without. If you

re stranded in your car, stay there: You

re more visible torescuers, and the car provides shelter.

CHOKING

Richard Stennes, MD, was home alone in La Jolla Shores, California, eating a steak, whenthe phone rang. The 64-year-old gulped down the bite still in his mouth and answered thecall. But the hunk of steak was stuck, and he couldn

t talk or breathe. He put his fingerdown his throat to grab the meat, but he couldn

t reach it. Gagging didn

t help either. So hewalked over to the couch and forcefully thrust his abdomen on the hard arm of the couch,sending the meat flying and allowing him to breathe again.An emergency physician, Dr. Stennes knew that if done right, this would have the sameeffect as the Heimlich maneuver. If you

re ever in the same situation, quickly find a chair orother piece of furniture or a kitchen counter, says Maurizio Miglietta, MD, chief of trauma atNewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Aim to hit the top ofthe chair or edge of the counter against your upper abdomen, in the soft part below thebony upside-down V of the ribs. Thrust up and inward. If you still can

t breathe after sixtries, call 911 from a landline, even if you can

t talk. They

ll find you. Write the word chokingsomewhere nearby, and leave the line open until help arrives.

HEART ATTACK

If you

re experiencing crushing chest pain with or without pain in your left arm, are short ofbreath, or have a sense of impending doom, you may be having a heart attack. (Womenare more likely to have atypical symptoms like severe fatigue, nausea, heartburn, andprofuse sweating.) Call 911 and chew one 325 mg uncoated aspirin, to get it into yourbloodstream fast. This will thin your blood, often stopping a heart attack in its tracks. Whilewaiting, lie down so your heart doesn

t have to work as hard, says Sandra Schneider, MD,a spokeswoman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. If you think you mightpass out, try forcing yourself to cough deeply. It changes the pressure in your chest andcan have the same effect as the thump given in CPR, says Dr. Schneider. “Sometimes itcan jolt the heart into a normal rhythm.”If someone else goes into cardiac arrest, note that the American Heart Association nowrecommends CPR without the mouth-to-mouth: Call 911, then push hard and fast on theperson

s chest until help comes.

IMPALEMENT

This doesn

t happen only in horror movies. Tornadoes and hurricanes can fling debris formiles, and even recreational hobbies like fishing or archery can be hazardous. Just askJames Bertakis. The 81-year-old Florida man fared better than Crocodile Hunter SteveIrwin, who was killed in 2006 when a stingray struck him in the heart. Bertakis was impaledwhen a stingray jumped into his boat and hit him directly in the chest. He didn

t remove the

barb but piloted the boat to land and got help.If you have something stuck in any body part, including your eye, don

t remove the object,says Richard O

Brien, MD, a spokesman for the American College of EmergencyPhysicians. “The object may be compressing an artery that would otherwise start bleedinglike crazy.”If you

ve been struck by a branch or some other hefty object, try to trim it, breaking off thepart that

s protruding from your body, but don

t pull it out.

SWIMMING EMERGENCIESRiptide:

Dr. Stennes is either extremely lucky or has a knack for putting his life in danger. Inaddition to surviving choking, he also saved his own life in a riptide in Acapulco, Mexico.“I was swimming in the ocean, and all of a sudden a strong current took me away,” he says.“There were no lifeguards, so I was waving to people on the shore, who just waved back atme. I began to think, I

m in a bad situation here. I

m not a great swimmer, and I can

t goagainst that riptide, so what am I going to do?” He floated for a while, then did exactly whatthe experts recommend: He swam slowly, parallel to the beach, until he was out of thecurrent.You know you

re in a riptide when you feel yourself being pulled away from the shoreline,says Dr. Bradley of the Red Cross. “Your natural reaction is to head toward the shore, butit

s very difficult to swim against a riptide.” Luckily, these currents are fairly narrow, so you just have to swim along the shore, in either direction.

Cramps:

If you

re in deep water, take a breath, lie on your back, and float. If you

ve got amuscle cramp (they often hit the calves), float facedown, grab your toes, and pull themtoward you, stretching your calf until the pain goes away. If it

s a stomach cramp, lie on yourback, spread your arms and legs, and float until you can swim back to shore.

BEAR ATTACK

If you surprise a bear, don

t run away. That invites an attack. Instead, stand up and backaway slowly, without looking the bear in the eyes. Speak softly to the animal (no loudshouting). If it does charge at you, try to make yourself look as large as possible: Stick outyour chest, raise your arms, and spread your legs. Now you can yell at the bear, to frightenit.If it

s going to attack, lie facedown, with your hands clasped behind your neck. Play deadand don

t get up until you

re sure the bear is gone. Leave the area immediately in case itreturns.If you

re in bear country, carry a bear-deterrent pepper spray (find one at epa.gov). Makesure the wind isn

t blowing toward you, and spray for one to two seconds when the bear is30 to 40 feet away.

POISONING

The most common reasons for calls to poison centers? Unintentional or intentional drugoverdoses (painkillers, sedatives, and antidepressants are high on the list) and exposureto cleaning products. No matter how little you

ve ingested, call a poison center before youdo anything. The national number is 1-800-222-1222.