Essex man encourages others to get checked for heart failure
Today, the public is invited to visit heart teams at stands in popular shopping centres in mid and south Essex.
A man from Essex is sharing his own experience with heart failure, hoping to encourage others to get checked.
Steve Simmons suffered from a massive heart attack back in 2017 - resulting in two stents being fitted, years in and out of hospital, and eventually a heart transplant.
The 55-year-old said: “I didn't realise I was having a heart attack. I felt really ill throughout the night. I couldn't get any sleep, I was violently sick. I went to the hospital the next day, thinking I'd pulled a muscle in my chest because I had a really bad pain in my chest from vomiting all night.
“About 30 seconds after having an ECG done, I was rushed away, pumped full of morphine, and ended up having two stents fitted - so the heart attack was quite a bad one. I left hospital but didn't get any better. This went on for the majority of the year.”
Steve says his heart function was at 10% and he was told he would need a heart transplant.
He explained: “Things were going OK and then we got to November 2018, and I started feeling worse. Doctors said the right-hand side of your heart was failing and I needed a heart transplant. I was in hospital for seven months.”
Steve Simmons admitted he wasn’t aware of the symptoms prior to his heart attack.
He said: “The breathlessness, I definitely should have paid more attention to but I didn't think anything of it at the time. You never think heart failure's going to happen to you. You never think you're going to have a heart attack. And it opens your eyes to the fact that the treatment and recognising heart failure early on is the key to saving lives.”
Staff from Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust are running stands at local shopping centres where the public can find out about heart failure, as well as receiving checks on their blood pressure and any symptoms.
The stands will take place on today (3 May), during Heart Failure Awareness Week (29 April – 5 May), at the High Chelmer shopping centre in Chelmsford, and the Eastgate shopping centre in Basildon from 8am-4pm.
The Trust’s heart failure service sees around 1,400 patients in need of emergency care each year in mid and south Essex, as well 2,400 patients with more routine needs.
The service also performs around 150 procedures each year using complex devices, including defibrillator and cardiac resynchronisation therapy.
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