We are the Latin American agent for the SleepStrip, the world's first disposable Sleep Apnea screener, winner of a Medical Design Excellence Award in 2002, and we distribute SleepSense brand sleep lab sensors in Panama.

 SleepStrip Sleep Apnea Sensor and
SleepSense Sleep Lab Sensors for Latin America

Heart Attack Survival Plan

Get to know the warning signs of a heart attack:

• Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, that goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain.
• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.
• Shortness of breath. Often comes along with chest discomfort. But it also can occur before chest discomfort.
• Other symptoms. May include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or lightheadedness.

What are the symptoms of a stroke?

The symptoms of stroke are distinct because they happen quickly:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg (especially on one side of the body)
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

Before You Need Emergency Response...

1) Have you or someone in your family been trained in CPR? If not, get it before moving here. If you are already a resident, click here for training information.

2) Have you actually spoken with the Emergency Response (ambulance) team near you? (What types of emergencies can they handle and if you have a specific medical condition, can they handle it?) Be sure to have a good interpreter with you if you do not speak Spanish well enough. Recall that many times, people say “yes” even though they know the answer is “maybe” or “no”. They do not like to say no. Ask them in a few different ways. Do they have a portable Automated External Defibrillator (AED)? This is a small, lightweight device used to assess a person's heart rhythm. If necessary, it administers an electric shock to restore a normal rhythm in victims of sudden cardiac arrest. See this page for more information and some ideas on getting one for your community.

3) Have you asked the driver about the amount of time it would take to reach your home after you call for help? (When you stop breathing, you have about 4 minutes before brain damage occurs.) If they tell you there is a problem, find out more information. Can it be fixed with some community involvement?

4) Talk with the local clinic and ask them about their procedure for anyone having a heart attack. Does the ambulance bring a patient to the clinic or direct to a hospital? Does the ambulance or the clinic have the training and ability to administer heart medications such as nitroglycerin or thrombolytic therapy? This employs medications known as tissue-type plasminogen activators (tPAs), such as tenecteplase and streptokinase, to dissolve the clot. These medications have revolutionized emergency medicine because they can be administered safely and promptly at any hospital. If they do not, ask them how you and your fellow ex-pats might assist in getting what’s needed.

5) If you live alone, have you spoken to your neighbors about what to do in case of an emergency? See below about an emergency signal independent of the phone system and Personal Emergency Response Systems.

6) Do any them have CPR training? (Remember, the typical regional habit of saying yes to any question. Ask for specifics on where they got it.) If not, motivate them to learn with you so that you can help one another if an emergency occurs. It works both ways. Click Here for more training information.

7) How would you alert someone if you had an heart-related event? (Have you practiced giving your home location in Spanish? Write it down and have it near the phone if needed).

8) Have you seen the local ambulance? This one may shock you but recall that many countries do not have the money to afford the latest technology let alone a dedicated piece of equipment.

9) Visit the hospital you would most likely be taken to for more advanced care and ask about their treatments for heart attack and stroke patients. See if they have the treatments listed above and ask about Angioplasty and their ability to perform this procedure.

Emergency Response

For those with a current heart condition and a heightened concern about emergency response, it is highly recommended that an emergency notification system be utilized to alert neighbors of a problem. Motorola’s TalkAbout ® two-way radios with paging features is a good example of the type of technologies available. They are easy to give to a neighbor or friend without the expense of a cell phone. For those wishing more capability, a no fee Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) is another option. We have seen two products that seem to offer good value for the money and do not require a service fee. They simply dial the phone to telephone numbers you choose and give a prerecorded message -- “Joe Smith at Casa Boquete near the post office has had an emergency and needs help.” Please see these two possibilities for more information:

http://www.callforassistance.com/ (Note, their home page is not great but the general idea and customer reviews are good. enough for inclusion here.) Cost $140 plus $35 for an additional pendant.

http://www.epill.com/pers911.html (Some good features like a home monitor system). $199 with two pendants.

Handy Medical Information can save time and lives

Another good recommendation from the experts is to have important information available for emergency personnel and keep copies in handy places, such as your wallet or purse.

We have already made this easy for you. Click here for an emergency medical information sheet. Please be sure to fill out the same form in Spanish for rescuers who do not understand English! the form is in Adobe Acrobat and if you need the free Acrobat reader, click here.

Some other helpful suggestions courtesy of US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute are:

• Think through what you would do if you had heart attack symptoms. Decide what you would do if it happened while you were at home, in the middle of the night, at work, or at any other place or in any other situation that might need advance planning.
• Decide who would care for any dependents in an emergency. Emergency medical personnel might contact a friend or relative (or the police department, if necessary) to make emergency arrangements for your dependents. However, don’t expect this to happen.
• Talk with your family and friends about the heart attack warning signs and the importance of acting fast by calling for help after a few minutes – 5 at the most – if those signs persist. Explain the benefits of calling for help, instead of getting to the hospital by car. In the interior, this may be your only option if no one is around. However, drive to the nearest place where people are and find a driver if possible.
• Talk to your doctor about what you should do if you experience any heart attack symptoms.
• If you are concerned about your insurance coverage, call your insurance company and check on your benefits. Most insurance companies cover emergency care for a possible heart attack. Carefully have them explain where in your policy does it state this coverage is extended. Also, make certain you are covered in the specific country you live in or if there are restrictions.

Aspirin – Heart Attacks and Stroke

One recommendation often seen on the Internet is to take aspirin during a heart attack or stroke.

The most important thing to do if any heart attack warning signs occur is to call for help immediately. Don't do anything before calling for help. In particular, don't take an aspirin, then wait for it to relieve your pain. Don't postpone calling for help. Aspirin won't treat your heart attack by itself.

After you call for help, the operator may recommend that you chew an aspirin or they may not know about this at all. If they do, he or she can make sure that you don't have an allergy to aspirin or a condition that makes using it too risky. (We suggest asking your doctor now if you should chew aspirin if you think you are having a heart attack and ask if there are any reasons why you shouldn’t.) If the operator doesn't talk to you about chewing an aspirin, the emergency medical technicians or the physician in the Emergency Department will give you an aspirin if it's right for you.

Research shows that getting an aspirin early in the treatment of a heart attack, along with other treatments EMTs and Emergency Department physicians provide, can significantly improve your chances of survival.

Taking aspirin isn't advised during a stroke, because not all strokes are caused by blood clots. Most strokes are caused by clots, but some are caused by ruptured blood vessels. Taking aspirin could potentially make these bleeding strokes more severe.

Making CPR More Effective:

CPR-Ezy was designed with this very important consideration in mind. CPR alone increases the odds of survival. However, research shows that the skills are lost over time and when your adrenaline starts flowing, you can injure the patient by overdoing it. Fatigue is another factor when giving CPR. For these reasons and many more, if you have not reviewed the “Why Buy CPR-Ezy” at their website, we highly recommend that you do so now. Click Here

Once you have your CPR-Ezy unit, practice chest compressions with your CPR-Ezy pad regularly – Chest compression is the most difficult aspect of CPR and should be practiced regularly on a low table or the floor. Also, remember to have some spare batteries just in case.

Contact nearby friends or neighbors trained in CPR who can assist you in performing CPR in an emergency. Teach them how to use CPR-Ezy by showing them the CPR-Ezy training videos and practicing with the CPR-Ezy Pad.

Make it a habit to train with CPR-Ezy every six months. The more practice you have, the better you will do in a real emergency!

What’s Next?

Okay, assuming that you have been trained in CPR and that you have followed the points above, you should click here to print out what to do if an emergency happens. Don’t wait to print it out when you need it. Post it so it is convenient. Again, remember than your adrenaline will be pumping and you will forget things. You will be affected by it. Don’t think you’ll be cool, calm and collected. You won’t be unless you have had experience in the Emergency Room or as an Emergency Medical Technician, etc.

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