Heart attack victim will surf again

On warm sunny days his wife Val and nine-year-old son Ian would be out on their boards enjoying the sea as well.

But even in the depths of winter Ian would be paddling through the breakers and riding the surf back to the shallows.

"To me surfing is a way of life. I go surfing whenever I can, two or three times a week if the surf is good. I get all the magazines," says Ian, a warehouse worker from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

Back on dry land it was when Ian was racing his wife home on his bike - Val was in the family car at the time - when he got the first indication that all was not well.

"I just felt a pain in my chest, I just thought 'Oh Jesus what is that'. It eased off, I didn't know what it was."

He managed to cycle gingerly home and then collapsed in an airmchair.

After five minutes the pain eased off and Ian felt well enough to go shopping.

Thinking about what had happened the following morning he went to see his family doctor.

"They said you are reasonably fit, there doesn't seem anything to worry about. I felt a bit daft for being there," remembers Ian, who doesn't smoke, eats healthily, has normal blood pressure and takes lots of exercise .Just as important, his family has no record of heart disease.

The next morning Ian got up to have a wash and then it happened.

"I started feeling this pain coming in my chest, it was a crushing feeling which started spreading to my left side."

He rang for a doctor and he was told an ambulance was on its way.

"Within minutes I was rolling about on the floor in agony," recalls Ian.

"My wife was panicking and we got our next door neighbour Sally to come in because she's a nurse," says Ian.

When the ambulance crew arrived they couldn't believe this skinny, surfing enthusiast in his thirties could be having a heart attack.

"One of the blokes on the ambulance said you have got a better heart rate than I have and I'm a runner," laughs Ian.

But tests at Bishop Auckland General Hospital confirmed what Ian feared most - he had had a heart attack and could have another at any time.

"I just couldn't believe it was happening to me," recalled Ian.

Doctors decided to transfer Ian to the heart unit at South Cleveland Hospital in Middlesbrough so further tests could be carried out.

On his second day at South Cleveland his condition significantly deteriorated.

"They told me I had unstable angina and I was too ill to leave the hospital."

Tests showed that the blockage in his coronary arteries was too severe to be cleared with balloon angioplasty - he would have to have open-heart surgery with all the risks that entailed.

"The nurses were great to me but it is hard not to worry when they tell you that you are going under the knife the next day."

A week after being admitted Ian had a multiple coronary bypass.

"I was really spaced out on drugs so I can't remember much but what comes back to me is waking up and seeing the clock on the wall in the middle of the night. I had a face mask on and things in my neck. It was like a horror story," he recalls.

Remarkably within a few days Ian was breathing on his own again.

And on Saturday morning, five days after major surgery, he found himself sitting back at home.

"I was terrified. I was out of my safe, hospital environment. My wife was on tenterhooks. I felt really vulnerable," says Ian.

As his hair-raising chest scar healed Ian's confidence increased.

Within four weeks of being discharged he was enrolled onto Bishop Auckland hospital's cardiac rehabilitation course, which includes sessions at the local swimming pool and leisure centre.

"I didn't feel ready for it but they gave me a treadmill test and said I had nothing to worry about. My heart was fine," he recalls.

Ian threw all his efforts into rehabilitation because he is determined to go surfing again before the summer is through.

"They told me they want to see photographs of me surfing again so they can put them on the wall of the heart unit to encourage other patients," he says.

His family, friends and workmates could not believe Ian had a heart problem.

"I used to run up the stairs two at a time so it was a real shock to my workmates at Electrolux," says Ian.

Experts have no definite explanation why the happy-go-lucky dad should have had a near-fatal heart attack but they think Ian may have a genetic weakness which has skipped a few generations.

"Nobody has had any heart problems in my family. My mum and dad are fine and my gran is going strong and she is 93," says Ian.

The realisation that everyone is potentially a heart attack victim - although 90 per cent of sufferers are in the main risk groups - has galvanized Ian into action.

He is now spreading the word to everyone he meets that they should take chest pain seriously and seek medical advice. "My message is don't ignore it. If it lasts a few days get it checked out. I was lucky because they caught me early enough. Others are not so lucky."

Ian says the treatment he received was "fantastic" but is only too aware that beds for heart patients are at a premium. "I could see and hear that they were struggling for beds at South Cleveland. Other hospitals were trying to send patients to them but there were not enough beds to go around," he says.

Ian is a strong supporter of The Northern Echo's A Chance To Live campaign to improve facilities for heart patients and urges everyone to read the recent 24 page heart health supplement produced by The Northern Echo earlier this month.

"I was very lucky but others never make it to the hospital," says Ian who is looking forward to getting up on his surf-board once again.