A Year after angioplasty, Jeff feels healthy again. But he nearly died waiting for a diagnosis.Read about Jeff’s experience without Right Choice Critical Illness Insurance. At age 46, Jeff was feeling some chest discomfort.Jeff heads up marketing for a software company, selling mainly to financial institutions. One year ago, he felt some discomfort in his chest and upper arms.At the time he was playing squash 3 times a week and running on weekends. He considered himself fit, despite slightly above-normal blood pressure. His GP told him that it could be several things, including a pulled muscle and stress. The doctor told Jeff to take aspirin and, just to be safe, he booked a cardiologist appointment for about a month later.In Canada, this is the typical response when a fit-looking individual reports possible cardiac symptoms. Jeff wasn’t a classic heart-attack-waiting-to-happen. He was not obese, sedentary, did not have high cholesterol, and was a non-smoker with no family history of heart disease. When Jeff saw the cardiologist, he hadn’t been feeling the pain for a week or so. However, the cardiologist suggested a stress test which would be a wait of about four weeks. Two days before the stress test, Jeff collapsed while throwing a football with his 10-year-old son, Ben. It was Ben who called 911 using Jeff’s cell phone, an act which may have saved his father’s life. Jeff was taken to hospital by ambulance. Over five days, his condition was stabilized with drugs. On the sixth day he had an angiogram, which showed extensive coronary disease. Two days later, Jeff had angioplasty (balloon enlargement of cardiac blood vessels). On the tenth day he was released. After Jeff had a heart attack, our healthcare system did a good job of treating him. But without the heart attack, it would have taken Jeff another 2 months to get angioplasty. If the stress test showed reduced heart function, Jeff would likely have been sent for a nuclear medicine scan. Based on those results, he would have had an angiogram, and then the surgery. Unfortunately, Jeff’s heart attack killed muscle tissue, producing lasting consequences. These included chronic fatigue, reduced ability to exercise and shortened life expectancy. At the end of his experience, Jeff felt lucky to be alive, but couldn’t help but think that the system was rolling the dice with his life. Jeff’s story is a composite of many factual patient case histories. |
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