“I didn’t think I was a candidate for a heart attack – I’m not obese, I didn’t normally have issues with my cholesterol or high blood pressure and I try to take care of myself. I was too young to have major heart health issues,” says Tanya of Cleveland on Brisbane’s bayside.
“And while my parents – Leslie Clark, 78 and Vera, 76 – are starting to get on age-wise, they’re pretty good about seeing their doctor when health issues arise. They had reported various heart-related symptoms to their primary health provider, but for some reason, of which I’m still unsure, they had never been referred for a specific cardiac assessment with a specialist.
“In Dad’s case, this is quite unbelievable as for 40 years he has had high cholesterol and high blood pressure and in the last six months had been losing weight and feeling more fatigued.”
The nightmare started in late February when it became clear that Tanya’s mother, Vera, was having heart issues. Despite being booked for an angiogram in a few days’ time, Tanya rushed her mother to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital with worsening chest pain and tightness in her chest. Fortuitously her cardiologist, Dr Stephen Kyranis was on call at RBWH and performed the angiogram early.
This had been her fourth admission to an emergency department in eight years (twice in Victoria where she had been discharged without any further cardiac assessments.)
After Vera’s emergency angiogram at RBWH, Dr Kyranis immediately referred her to St Vincent’s Northside cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Andrew Clarke, who upon a thorough assessment decided she needed an urgent triple bypass.
While Vera was recovering in St Vincent’s, in quick succession, Tanya, then her father Leslie were also admitted and they both came under the care of St Vincent’s cardio-oncologist Dr Mohsen Habibian.
After an angiogram performed by St Vincent’s cardiologist Professor Darren Walters, it showed a 10% blockage of one artery which is all it took, combined with the stress of her mother’s surgery, to trigger a heart attack.
It was only after Tanya was admitted, some days later she was still being treated in St Vincent’s that her father, who by now was playing visitor to both his wife and daughter, started to clutch his chest and he too was admitted.
Professor Walters conducted an angiogram on Leslie Clark and he was found to have four major arteries blocked (between 90 and 95%) and required quadruple bypass surgery - which was done within days by St Vincent’s cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Andrew Clarke (no relation).
“They told us that Dad’s heart was hanging by a thread and they didn’t know how he was still walking around. I think they thought he was a walking miracle,” says Tanya.
As Tanya and her parents continue to adjust to a new normal, and finally rehabilitate at home, she says she and her family feel as “if the blinds have been lifted” for them in terms of knowledge and awareness of the complexity of symptoms and how heart issues “can be a slow killer”. They are all passionate about informing and educating the public about what they have all learned.
“Don’t take any heart symptoms for granted and sometimes you need to be more persistent with your primary doctors if the cause or answer isn’t obvious, or if there is any sort of history of cardiac issues in the family, and insist on being referred for cardiac assessment, ranging from an ECG stress test, or other investigations,” says Tanya.
“There seems to be something missing in the protocol at the primary care level where they should ask a standard series of questions, including about family history of heart disease and if there’s any issues, I think you should get a referral to a cardiologist.
“The three of us feel like we are the lucky ones who by circumstance, we were saved and lived to tell our story. We were given the gift of life and we all want to share our experience to prompt others to not be lax about symptoms you might be experiencing or your family history. Knowledge about our own health gives us greater awareness to be proactive to prevent bigger and more serious health issues.”
