Heart attack

Having a heart attack can cause great fear and worry about what the future may hold. When I had my heart attack on board an aircraft in June last year we were training for the Land Rover Challenge which was seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in order to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. It was only four months before the challenge was due to begin when I had the heart attack and I thought that is probably it. Am I going to spend the rest of my life taking it easy, tottering around indoors instead of enjoying strenuous exercise? Luckily I can say that a double heart bypass operation, and the care and encouragement which I received afterwards have given me back the kind of life which I think of as normal. After the bypass operation I was told that for eight weeks I shouldn’t drive or take any hard exercise. I had to start by trying to walk uphill, I would get out of breath within a few steps and have to sit down. The walking was really rather more like lurching but within two weeks I was jogging for an hour and after a month I was jogging for two hours. At the end of three months I was doing a three hour run and then I did my first post-op marathon. The bypass certainly did slow me down enormously, but I was  very fit before I had the heart attack and it took time to regain even a reasonable level of fitness. But four months after the operation I did complete the Land Rover Challenge [2003] with my colleague Dr Mike Stroud.

Not everybody will be as lucky as I’ve been, some people will be disabled from their heart attack and some will lose their confidence or find it difficult to recover physically or emotionally. But many people will find that they continue with the life that they had before . The heart attack website brings you the stories of ordinary people – men and women of all ages from different backgrounds and cultures – some whose lives have returned to normal after their heart attack and others whose lives have not. Listen to them all and watch them, they talk about the symptoms  and their treatments, what they did in order to recover, how it affected them and their families, and the way in which it has changed their lives. Maybe you or somebody you know has had a heart attack, perhaps you treat or care for people who’ve had a heart attack or maybe you just want to understand more about this condition and what it’s like to live with it day after day. Well whatever your situation is we hope that you will find this heart attack website informative and useful.

Interview 37: No chest pain, no dizziness, no sweating, nothing at all from the things which we know from [laughs] what’s told in the books. So ask the patients about.

Interview 19: At that time I was amazed, staggered, to be told yes, you've definitely had a heart attack.

Interview 32: So he didn't know what to do really. His mum was, you know, really poorly and he just didn't know what to do because that's not supposed to happen to your Mum.

Interview 5: I was intensely physical, you know, I used to love just running up a hill or mountain if it was there or -. Now I can't walk without having to stop. It's such a change. It's quite frustrating.

Interview 8: Because the black moods, the despair, and very much out of character after the triple bypass initially  have me breaking down and crying for no apparent reason.

Interview 22: You might not be able to do all the things that you did before. You might not be able to think as clearly as it did before, but you can, you can't get over it. You can, you can build up your life.

Interview 23: Most people can do a heck of a lot more after a heart attack than they think they can.

Interview 22: I think that life is good and there's only one life to enjoy, so you might as well enjoy it.