“I should have pushed to go to hospital earlier”

“One night in November 2017, I felt really unwell. I was hot and sweaty. I had an upset tummy and discomfort in my chest. My husband Craig called 111 and they sent out paramedics.

The paramedics said – I remember it vividly – ‘You’re definitely not having a heart attack.’

For days after that, I still had this feeling in my chest, so I went to see a GP, who thought it was indigestion.

But I had a family history of heart problems: my father and maternal uncle had heart attacks in their 40s and 50s.

I brought this up and the doctor said he’d phone the cardiac team in the local hospital. He told me that from my symptoms they also thought it was indigestion. But no one from the hospital saw me at that point.

About a year later, I went to see a different doctor as I was still experiencing a funny feeling in my chest when I walked, and the indigestion tablets did not make a difference. They gave me different indigestion tablets, but these did not work either.

I kept thinking to myself, something must have happened that night the paramedics came. I’d been fine until then.

A few months later I was able to see my usual doctor who'd returned from maternity leave. She referred me to the cardiac unit to ‘rule things out’. I’m forever grateful that she did.

In the cardiac unit, I did an exercise ECG, where I walked on a treadmill while an electrocardiogram machine recorded my heart’s electrical activity. They told me to stop immediately.

I was diagnosed with angina, which is when you get chest pain or discomfort because not enough blood is flowing to the heart muscle.

I was put on medication and they said that from what they could see, and from what I told them, they thought I'd had a heart attack that night the paramedics came out to see me.

The woman I saw in the cardiac unit said that an upset tummy and clamminess can be symptoms of a heart attack. It's not always the gripping pain you see in movies.

It's not always the gripping pain you see in movies.

Four weeks after that, I had an angiogram, which is a test where they look at the heart’s blood supply. Three of the blood vessels supplying my heart were blocked, and I had to have bypass surgery in September 2019.

I had amazing care from everyone who looked after me in hospital. It was a long recovery, during a difficult period when my mother died suddenly, only a few weeks after my operation, and we then had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

But after the operation I managed to get myself fitter and healthier.

What scares me and my husband is that I was walking about with a heart condition that I did not know about for over a year.

When someone in a more educated position tells you, ‘You’re definitely not having a heart attack’, you want to accept that. But I knew something was not right when the paramedics came.

As women, we’re sometimes too accepting of what somebody tells us.

I think, as women, we’re sometimes too accepting of what somebody tells us.

If I could go back to that night, I would have asked more questions, I would have raised my family history of heart problems then, I would have pushed to go to the hospital.”  

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