Real life story
"I worry if I wait any longer for heart treatment, I'll be housebound"
Dot Addley from Faversham in Kent is waiting for a potentially lifesaving procedure to open up her coronary artery. The 80-year-old has been waiting 18 months and her health is getting worse by the day.
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“People say I don’t look 80, because I don’t have grey hair. It’s still auburn, my natural colour. I didn’t use to feel my age either, until recently. But my angina symptoms are now making it hard to do anything. I’ve had to stop doing the things I love, like bird watching and gardening, because the next day I’ll be so whacked out.
My underlying condition is that, genetically, I make a lot of cholesterol that has clogged up my arteries. I had triple-bypass surgery nine years ago to treat blocked arteries, and now my right coronary artery is blocked up.
I know this because I had a CT angiogram in November 2023, when they told me I needed an invasive angiogram (PCI) to unblock the artery and possibly put a stent in. I looked up the waiting time at the local hospital and it was seven months.
I did not realise I’d been waiting for 18 months until I saw British Heart Foundation's 'Hearts need more' campaign. I was surprised when I added it up, from when I had my first symptoms in November 2022 to now.
I used to work in the NHS, as a senior medical secretary in general surgery, and I’m sure there are people on the waiting list that are worse than me, and I would not want to jump in front of them.
But I worry that if it takes much longer, my artery is going to be so blocked they won’t be able to put the stent in. And that will leave me housebound."
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