Health Problems

Heart

Anzac Day 1996 was a beautiful day. We started early, because we had decided to climb the Kaitake Ranges in the morning. 

We set off and drove up Surrey Hill Road to the start of the track. Up the first stage of the hill track through farmland, I suddenly found myself short of breath. We stopped and rested for a few minutes, and then I felt better so we continued on. We had done this climb a few times before, so knew the way, and reached the top without incident after around two hours. After eating our lunch at the top, and admiring the view of North Taranaki, the coast up to Raglan, and the mountain behind us, we reluctantly set off down the hill again, arriving home in the early afternoon. 

We worked in the garden in the afternoon and by early evening it was time for a rest, so I sat down in the lounge. I had been resting just a short time when I felt a tightening in my chest. After a few minutes, I realised that this pain was not going away – well, it wasn’t highly painful, just tight. So I decided to phone the doctor’s surgery. Then I had second thoughts. If this might be a heart problem, there was no time to lose, and I knew from my experience working at the hospital that the ambulance guys were the best in emergency situations. 

So we phoned 111 and waited for the ambulance to arrive. Fifteen minutes it took, which was pretty quick, considering they had to travel 15 kms. They hooked me up to their machinery, and said they thought I was having a heart attack. Then we set off for A&E, with Marg following in the car. 

In A&E I joined the standard protocol for heart patients and ended up in ICU a few hours later. I had had a heart attack and was looked after in the ward for a few days and then left hospital to start the process of getting better, or at least of undergoing tests to find out what was happening. 

However, we did not get far along that track before I had another suspected attack about a month after the first. Again the ambulance took me to A&E and I ended up in the medical ward, the old Ward XII, until a transfer was arranged to Waikato Hospital Catheter Lab so I could have an angiogram. 

This involved inserting a catheter in my groin and injecting dye into the heart so they could study the coronary arteries on the screens attached to a scanner. 

The result was a diagnosis that three arteries were largely blocked and needed bypass surgery. And in a hurry. The surgeon explained later that the crude cobalt radiotherapy I had had after my cancer episode had damaged the arteries (probably). 

So late in May we arrived at Waikato Hospital on a Tuesday afternoon and booked in to the hostel there (Hilda Ross) ready for interviews on the Wednesday and admission for surgery on the Thursday.