Ocean Protagonist

Unlike most stories that involve a heart attack this one turned out pretty good, and I’m very grateful for that.

After almost 10 years ten years as a fire fighter, it was time to do something new, but out of all the things I could have done, open heart surgery wasn’t big on the list.

I was out surfing with friends one evening an I was thinking to myself wow this is such an incredible evening and things couldn’t get better than this.

I caught a wave and came off awkwardly and was winded, I crawled onto my board and laid across it trying to get my breath back, couldn’t get a breath and my chest felt really heavy. I was trying to shake it off but was struggling and my friends where quite a way out.

I decided to coast back on the waves and head up the beach, it was an effort to stumble up the beach and I laid there looking at the sky for a while.

I did a quick assessment, I’m 45, eat well, fit and have a great lifestyle what the hell was happening, heart attack wasn’t on the list, I wrote it off as a bad fall or angina.

My friends came in and we sat on the beach for a while, I didn’t say anything because it was passing and I could move again and we headed up to the car to get change.

Getting out of the wetsuit was a crazy effort, once I got home I thought a shower might help but didn’t get there as the pain in the chest got really bad.

The ambulance was called and it seemed a very long painful wait time..

Later on, the paramedics told me they were really worried when they heard my name over the call as they knew I was young and fit, it must be something serious.

It was a pretty painful experience as I was cold and the paramedics had a hard time getting a drip into me to start the thrombolysis process. At one stage the paramedic was about to get the power drill to drill into my shin bone to administer the drugs, I looked at him and said hey mate, (we’ve worked together before on a few occasions as emergency responders) “I would really appreciate if you didn’t do that while I was still conscious” we both laughed and redoubled his efforts at the drip. Finally, after and hour a drip was put in and I was thrombosed…tbc

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