My Heart Attack - July 15, 2007

No better way to start this blog than with photos taken the night after my heart attack after three stents have been inserted through my groin and before I was sent up to Brisbane to have bypass surgery - in those days this procedure was not done at the Gold Coast hospital where I live. Did I mention I had turned 54 the previous month.

Looking at these photos, you wouldn't think that just over 24 hours earlier I was struggling to live dealing with a number of cardiac arrests, 29 cardioversions/resuscitation - hence the name of this blog, My 29 Lives.

And did I mention the night of my heart attack on July 15, 2007 I gave up smoking? At the time I was smoking 40-50 cigarettes a day and had been smoking for 33 years and have not had one since.

I should add that the night of my heart attack I did not have the classic warning signs or symptoms and later found out that this is not uncommon for diabetics - I am T2.

Not for the squeamish - photo of my groin through which they accessed the blocked right coronary artery to insert three stents. I can tell you, a few days later this whole area was black and blue. After the procedure they strapped a sand brick over the groin and told me to lie still for four hours to minimize the chance of a hematoma. Due to complications, I had to stay flat on my back for eight hours in total before I was allowed out of bed.

You can clearly see the markings on my chest where they placed the defib pads to 'shock' me 29 times. Those marks were almost like tattoos and were still visible well over a month after my heart attack.

Following are two pics taken three days later and the pad marks are clear.

And here is my groin three days later, it took well over a month for this to completely disappear.

Following is a copy of the medical report prepared the day after my heart attack for the hospital where I was being sent to have bypass surgery. The report details what I presented with, what treatment was given to me at Gold Coast hospital and the comment that I would benefit from bypass surgery - better than the alternative I would think!

The following report was written after my triple bypass surgery which took place at Princess Alexandra hospital in Brisbane five days later after my heart attack. As noted in the report, when the aorta was declamped I had another episode of ventricular fibrillation which required cardioversion.

With the above as a starting point, this blog will trace the journey I then embarked upon which so far still has me going some seven years later.