Heart-felt discussions after heart surgery

By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com

Ian Cruickshank had questions, but no one to give any answers.

Cruickshank had triple bypass surgery in April of last year. At the time, the pandemic was still a serious concern, and getting appointments with doctors to answer questions was a challenge.

Now, he’s gone from having questions to providing answers...and support.

Cruickshank started a post-heart-surgery support group, Heart Buddies, with the goal to let people share their experiences and concerns, and to hear that they aren’t alone in their recovery process.

For Cruickshank, he experienced the realities of surgery during the pandemic. He had his procedure delayed by five days, for starters.

Beyond that, everything went fine. Except for getting answers to how he was feeling and if that was normal.

Cruickshank said he had difficulty getting an appointment with his surgeon for the usual six-week post-operative checkup. He was left wondering if he was healing properly.

Enter Brenda Stevens, a social worker with the Thamesview Family Health Team.

Stevens put Cruickshank in touch with a local woman, Jen Padbury, who had open-heart surgery a decade earlier.

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