Foundation ambassador, Chris Russell describes surviving a heart attack at 52, thanks to the miracle work of our researchers.

 

‘On 16 May 2004, I fell from a boat into cold water in the Hawkesbury River, which triggered a complete blockage of my right coronary artery.

 

Symptoms

 

I had no pain, but I felt "off" - so I sat down, then laid down. My wife, who was a nurse, recognised the symptoms of pins and needles in the left arm and a grey facial complexion. As I lay on the floor with legs in the air she rang 000.

 

Treatment and assessment

 

I was dangerously distant from available transport to a hospital, let alone a catheterisation lab (where heart attacks are treated). Yet within 15 minutes I had met the first response paramedic - "Eddie the Ambo" as he introduced himself. He gave me an aspirin and set up the ECG.

 

Fifteen minutes later, I was en route to Royal North Shore Hospital in an ambulance equipped with the early triage program.

 

Transport time was not wasted - paramedics transmitted my ECG to the hospital for triage and assessment.

 

By the time I arrived, one of the top interventional cardiology teams in Australia was ready for me in the catheterisation lab, and I was immediately wheeled in, had the clot "exploded" and a stent inserted in my artery.

 

Miracle recovery

 

"What could have been" was all too apparent when "Eddie the Ambo" rang me two days later in the ward to see if "his miracle" was still with us.

 

Thanks to the wonderful follow-up work of cardiologist Geoffrey Tofler and the whole cardiac rehab team, I am not just surviving; I am living a much healthier and well managed lifestyle to the full... And thanks to my early triage miracle, I have just run my five-yearly stress test without a blip in sight.

 

Thanks team – you are miracle workers and you have given me a whole extra life!'

Chris Russell is an agricultural scientist and judge on ABC TV's New Inventors Programme.