вторник, 18 сентября 2012 г.

I was a fit, healthy mother - but I had three heart attacks; The British Heart Foundation is challenging the stereotype that heart attacks only happen to middle-age men who haven't looked after themselves. Health Editor Madeleine Brindley spoke to mother-of-three Claire Rumble who suffered three heart attacks.(Features) - Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales)

Byline: Madeleine Brindley

AT THE age of 42, Claire Rumble had never smoked; she ate a healthy diet and had a low cholesterol level.

If she had been given an MOT, she would have passed it with flying colours.

But one cold and snowy February morning in 2009, the mother-of-three suffered the first of three heart attacks as she sat at the table with husband Clive.

If she hadn't been so healthy at the time; if she'd been a heavy smoker or overweight, it's doubtful whether she'd be here today.

'We were doing some paperwork and it felt as though I had really bad indigestion,' Claire said.

'And then other things started to happen - I had a tingling sensation down my left arm, I became very cold and yet my hands were very clammy. I was just very, very unwell and I was struggling to get my breath.

'Had there have been no other signs, I would have thought it was just really bad indigestion - even when the consultant later confirmed I'd had a heart attack, I wouldn't believe that it had happened to me.'

Claire's husband called 999 and paramedics rapidly arrived at the couple's home in Llanelli.

Claire, who has three sons, was given aspirin and a GTN spray before being taken to nearby Prince Philip Hospital.

She then had to wait in the ambulance for two hours until she could be admitted.

'When I did get into hospital, I was in casualty until 4am and then I was put in the admissions ward once it was confirmed I'd had a heart attack - I think I was in a state of shock. I was a bit giggly, I couldn't believe it,' said Claire.

'The following morning I called the girls I was working with - ironically at the British Heart Foundation - and told them that I'd be in the office the following day. They told me not to be so silly, but I was absolutely firm about it.

'But at 10.30am that day I had another heart attack, which was stronger and more severe than the first.'

Claire, who is now 44, was rushed to the coronary care unit and then transferred, as an emergency, to Morriston Hospital, in Swansea. The consultant decided not to operate immediately, instead opting to allow her to rest and have more tests.

At 3am next morning Claire suffered her third heart attack.

'I had a very, very big heart attack that did a lot of damage to my heart,' she said. 'I was then taken to theatre and had two stents put into the artery.

'They also found that two of the smaller arteries were diseased, but they were too small to have stents put in. They told me that I'd need a bypass later.

'At the moment the arteries aren't giving me any bother. I'm on a lot of medicines to keep everything running smoothly.

'If I hadn't have been where I was when I had the third heart attack, they told me I wouldn't have survived.

'I was in denial at first and it was only three or four months later that what had happened hit me. When I was having the third heart attack, I thought that was it. I was slipping in and out of consciousness; 'I could hear them calling for the defibrillator. I knew I had started having the heart attack and then the next thing my husband was there - he had to be called. I'm very, very lucky, but they were fantastic at Morriston Hospital.'

Tests have revealed no reason why Claire suffered the series of heart attacks. She believes she was just unlucky, saying: 'I kept asking why, because it was so unfair - I'd never smoked, I'd never been overweight and didn't have high cholesterol.

'If I'd had a complete MOT the day before, then I would have passed, because I had no health problems.

'But they said that if I had been a smoker, I wouldn't be sitting here today. I wouldn't have survived the attacks.'

Claire is now trying to regain the stamina she had before the heart attacks. She has given up her work in events and promotions to concentrate on her own health.

Although she has had to make few adjustments to her generally healthy lifestyle, the heart attacks have affected her in other ways.

'I think it certainly makes you more vulnerable,' Claire said.

'You think if it could happen then, it could happen anytime, but you've then got to push that thought to the back of your mind because you have to live for today, enjoy yourself and not worry about it.

'Six months after I had a panic attack when I was driving on the motorway. I'd never had that before and I think it was a knock-on effect. I was very outgoing and would just jump in the car and drive before, but now I stay closer to home.'

Claire added: 'It shocked the mothers at my son's school - they all thought that if she can have one, if it happened to her, it could happen to anyone.

'You tend to think heart attacks only happen to people who are overweight or who are heavy smokers but they don't.

'When something like this happens to you, it makes people realise it can happen to anyone.'

from all walks of life.'

THE ANGINA MONOLOGUES A RECENT survey found that less than a quarter of women in Wales believe that heart disease is the biggest killer of women - most believe breast cancer claims more lives.

The British Heart Foundation has launched a new campaign to raise awareness of the fact that heart and circulatory disease kills one-in-three men and one-in-three women. As part of the campaign, award-winning comedian Victoria Wood will return to the stage to raise awareness of heart disease in women, in a West End showed called The Angina Monologues, on December 5. Victoria Wood said: 'Like most women, I thought heart disease was something that only affected men, like nose hair and not washing big dirty pans. We need to spread the word.'

June Davison, senior cardiac nurse at the BHF, said: 'Too many women think heart disease only affects middle-aged overweight men, but this simply isn't the case.

The show will also be broadcast to Vue cinemas in Merthyr Tydfil and There are more than a million women living with heart disease in the UK today and it affects women Cwmbran. Tickets cost pounds 10 each and are available from the website www.anginamonologues

CAPTION(S):

'They said that if I had been a smoker, I wouldn't be sitting here today. I wouldn't have survived the attacks,' says Claire Rumble at her home in Llanelli