A Fife man who lost his father to a heart attack was back on his bike just three weeks after life-saving medics prevented him from suffering the same fate.
With a family history of heart problems, George White (70), of Auchtermuchty, feared his time was up when he woke up one Saturday morning with tightening pains in his chest and shortness of breath.
But now back in the saddle, the keen cyclist was full of praise for the newly-extended angioplasty service in Ninewells Hospital which saved his life.
Before the hospital’s coronary angioplasty service became a 24-hour service earlier this year, patients like George would have had to travel to Edinburgh for emergency treatment out of hours.
When the retired head teacher suffered his heart attack at home his wife Anne dialled 999 and paramedics rushed him to Dundee for an emergency angioplasty.
The procedure increases blood flow to the heart muscle by stretching open narrowed arteries with balloons and supporting the stretched artery with tubular scaffolding “stents”.
George said, “I was extremely worried as my father had died of a heart attack while in an ambulance on the way to hospital when I was 15 and he was 50, and other members of my family had also passed away after suffering heart attacks.Highest standard”However, the whole process of being taken out of my house in a stretcher to receiving treatment at the cath lab at Ninewells was seamless, which offered me great assurances that the service I was receiving was of the highest standard.
“During the procedure I was given a local anaesthetic and a catheter was inserted into my wrist that fed into an artery in my heart.
“Consultant Dr John Irving carried out my procedure and, afterwards, he showed me real time video footage of the operation and exactly what they needed to do to identify and remove the blockage.”
George’s catheter was guided to the heart with X-rays and allowed injection of contrast dye to show the coronary arteries.
A balloon was then inserted and inflated to open the blockage. His artery is now held open permanently by a stent.
Full of praise for the staff at the cath lab and ward staff who looked after him in recovery, George said, “I was very impressed by the professionalism, morale and extremely caring nature of all of the nurses and doctors who attended to me.
“The fact that I was able to return home after only a couple of days to recover was fantastic.”
Around 275 patients a year will benefit from Ninewell’s optimal reperfusion service — as it is also known — each year now that it is operating around the clock.
Consultant cardiologist Dr Irving said, “We planned this new service very carefully and it has been personally very rewarding to meet some of the people who benefit from our new way of working.”