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Sandy, when your heart thumps - it is most likely a PVC, premature ventricular contraction. The top part of the heart is supposed to squeeze (contract) slightly before the bottom part of the heart. The top part receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and then it is squeezed down into the bottom part of the heart, then the bottom part squeezes the blood out into the whole body.
So, as you can see when the bottom part squeezes before it has received blood from the top part, well then there is no blood to squeeze out and so no oxygen gets out in to the body for that heart beat.
We all have PVC's and that is usually that "thump" you feel in your chest. If you have several PVCs in a row (one right after another) you can feel very dizzy and can even faint. When Diana said it made her cough, that is the bodys own way to stop the PVCs. It is too complicated to explain why coughing can stop PVCs, but it can. Some people have so many PVCs that they have to take medication for them.
Sometimes though, the thump you feel is the top part of the heart beating irregularly, but it is usually the bottom part.
You can see a doctor and they will hook you up to a holter monitor for 24 hours to see how bad the PCVs really are. Also, caffiene, stress and fatigue will often cause PVCs to flare up. My daughter has them pretty badly, but not badly enough for medication. But if she drinks too much caffeine then she gets more of them and it bothers her. I get more of them when I lay on my left side at night. Sometimes I have to turn over to get the to stop.
PVCs are usually harmless, unless they make you dizzy or you have too many of them. Also, they can be fatal - if you heart starts beating with all PVCs then, you will die. That very rarely happens in the absence of heart disease - but it can happen. When you hear that someone (usually a young person) died of a fatal heart rhythm, that is what it is - PVCs that did not stop.
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 Gayle
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