Ron's Story

In September 2004 I was proud of feeling fitter than most people of seventy. I was able to run upstairs without feeling breathless even if I was overweight. Then suddenly one morning while I was having breakfast I had chest pains and a feeling that I was going to choke. Twenty minutes later I had recovered and spent the next two hours looking up 'heart attack' on the internet. I didn't seem to have had one and decided not to bother a doctor.

The chest pains came back whenever I walked too fast or went uphill. I decided to see my excellent GP. He suspected angina and told me to have various tests - blood, ECG, ECG with treadmill - and then prescribed drugs and a spray.

The treatment was very effective, at least in suppressing the symptoms. He said I was at high risk of a heart attack and referred me to a cardiologist . He wanted an angiogram carried out, but I was feeling so well I decided to put off what sounded like a very unpleasant experience. I went on holiday to the Scillies for a fortnight at the end of the year.

Eventually the cardiologist persuaded me to have the angiogram at the end of February. I was told that although my heart was in good shape four arteries were badly clogged and I should have quadruple bypass surgery at once - or risk death. Decades of gluttony had taken their toll.

I had been selected months before as a candidate in the County Council elections to be held on May 5, so I asked to postpone the op until May 6. As a private patient I could choose my date, but the cardiologist said he thought I might not make it to the election. I had the op ten days later. If I was terrified it was only for a moment simply because being told the alternative could be death does concentrate the mind somewhat. The heart surgeon told me there was a 1.75 % danger of a fatality but that was a small percentage by comparison with the risk of dying if I did not have surgery.

I was four hours in the operating theatre having off-pump surgery and pretty groggy in intensive care for the next eighteen hours. I can't say I felt much pain - just discomfort. I was soon asking to leave the hospital. Six days later my wife drove me straight to our favourite restaurant on our way home and I had a hearty lunch with medicinally correct red wine.

The next two or three weeks the main problem which restricted me was the wound on my left leg from which a vein had been taken for two of the bypasses, but I was able to continue to fight the election by writing letters to hundreds of people I could not visit. I had the best untrained nurse in the world - my wife. After five weeks I resumed my work as a District Councillor and started canvassing for the County Council election. I found walking from house to house just what the doctor ordered. I won the seat by 57 votes.

Now four months after the op - the time when Sir Ranulf Fiennes, who was operated on by the same team of surgeons, ran seven marathons - I am leading a normal life but after losing ten kilos I am continuing to diet to keep the BMI below 25. I can say that I have had no complications. I still get tired more quickly than I used to and I have been told that this will be the case for a few more months.

Thank you, surgeon Franco Ciulli and cardiologist Martin Oberhoff, for performing a miracle.

Ron

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Ron's Story

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