"St Vincent’s Northside is a large hospital with the full suite of services for cardiac care," says Dr Thompson.
"They have a very experienced team with quick and reliable access to all services which benefits our patients so that they can get cared for and will be passed onto the right team at the right time.
“We’re able to offer the full spectrum of diagnostics and treatment and if patients require surgical intervention, St Vincent’s has a team of specialists and a surgical nursing team which is first class.
“From a surgeon’s perspective, having theatre nurses who are experienced and who know every step of a wide array of cardiac procedures is enormously beneficial – with many nurses, they almost read your mind about what you need to do next and anticipate what equipment you need to be handed.
“It means we can minimise the risk for the patient, whatever the procedure and maximise the return in terms of getting the best possible outcome for each occasion.”
"There’s some conditions which don’t manifest with symptoms for many years or even decades for some people,” says Dr Marshall.
"Knowing your family history, including your wider family such as aunts and uncles, is often a good indicator of whether there’s the potential for someone to have a genetic predisposition for a heart condition.
“If people are proactive as well about seeing their GP for an annual Heart Health Check or getting their calcium score tested when appropriate they can potentially pick up underlying issues before they become apparent or before they become serious.
“Sometimes if you wait until you’re having symptoms, then it’s possibly too late and at the first sign of symptoms you need to take action and see a GP or if the pain intensifies significantly or persists, call Triple 0 or get to a hospital.”
Dr Marshall recently spoke further about the importance of understanding your heart health with 4BC Drive's Gary Hardgrave who himself revealed he had experienced his own serious cardiac episode 10 years ago. To listen, click here. The interview starts at 50.30.
Tony Stuart-Street
Tony had open heart surgery and spent a week post-surgery recovering in St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside.
While he’s still feeling a bit vulnerable, he was looking forward to getting home and slowly resuming his normal routine over the next few months.
Dr Marshall says Tony was lucky that he acted when he did.
“If he had ignored the shortness of breath, pain and dizzy spells for much longer he probably would have soon had a major heart attack and that would have most likely had a much larger negative impact on his quality of life and his life expectancy,” he says.
