news Check your heart this Heart Week Almost 10 years ago, Canberra local Glen Farrant thought he had only pulled a muscle as his chest began to ache. He had spent hours doing heavy lifting and, at midnight, after a shower, first noticed the pain. Within minutes, the pain began to escalate until he felt like a heavy weight was sitting on his chest and like he was going to vomit. Then 52 years old, Mr Farrant was later told he was lucky to survive his heart attack. “I knew something was wrong,” he said. “Alison (his wife) rang the ambulance … It took about an hour from my first symptoms until I was in intensive care with a stent in.” He said it was lucky his wife Alison immediately thought of her father, who had died of a heart attack aged 39, and recognised the symptoms. Mr Farrant was told by hospital staff if he had waited any longer to go to hospital, his own experience would have been “more serious”.
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Prior to his heart attack in 2011, he had never had a heart check, and was shocked to learn heart attacks are responsible for causing almost one in 20 deaths in Australia. “As I was going into hospital, I was wondering whether this was the end. My father died of a heart attack, Alison’s father died of a heart attack, I thought it was my number up,” he said. According to the Heart Foundation, onefifth of Australians aged 45-74 years have a high chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next five years. While deaths from heart attacks have been decreasing over time, researchers are concerned that following the COVID-19 pandemic, people are not undertaking preventative health assessments such as Heart Health Checks. This Heart Week, 3-9 May, the Heart Foundation has a focus on supporting health professionals to deliver more Heart Health Checks to eligible patients.
As a grandfather to three young girls, Josie, Chloe and Abbey, Glen Farrant said surviving his heart attack experience has made him realise what he could have missed out on. Photo: Kerrie Brewer.
As a grandfather to three young girls, Mr Farrant said surviving his heart attack experience has made him realise what he could have missed out on and has a regular Heart Health Check. Find an extended version of this story at canberraweekly.com.au - Erin Cross
