'A nightmare since day one': Hartlepool man suffers severe heart attack in Turkiye
Michael Henderson had to have emergency surgery
Last updated 1st Jul 2024
The family of a Hartlepool man say it has been a nightmare after he suffered a severe heart attack in Turkiye.
63 year-old Michael Henderson was told by Turkish doctors they were "too full" to care for him and transferred him to a private hospital instead.
It brought a huge bill of £40,000, which was reduced to £32,000, in order to be released.
Their friends, and the local community, rallied together to help pay for that.
Earlier this week though, he had to go back to hospital to get a pacemaker fitted, which is going to bring further costs.
Michael's daughter, Gail Taylor, said: "Two of his valves were closed so they said he needed emergency surgery and if he didn't get it within the next 12 hours he wouldn't make it.
"They told my mum all of this, they gave her a piece of paper that was in Turkish and told her that she needed to sign this paperwork for him to go through to theatre and if it wasn't signed, he wouldn't obviously survive. They didn't explain everything to her, they couldn't get him into their version of an NHS hospital, so they took him to a private hospital and this is where all the confusion started.
"His heart rate was through the roof and they were struggling to control his blood pressure. When I went back in and they said it was safe to go back in, you could see his heart jumping out of his chest. It was that strong the heartbeat. He was put no loads of things like drips, breathing machines and everything.
"He's struggling. He's gone from being a man who was very healthy, he's played football all his life and he's only ever been in hospital once or twice to do with his knees. The whole thing has just been a nightmare from day one. For me and my brother, I think we both just thought he was going to die. We didn't think there were any other options. We were absolutely devastated.
"I'm glad that he went in for the surgery but I just think the way that they've dealt with it hasn't been the best. For someone to say to you 'sign this form and if you don't we can't do his surgery and he'll die within the so many hours.' It doesn't matter who you are, you would sign the form.
"Anybody who you'll speak to will say the same thing 'I can't believe it.' It's so much of a shock for someone who's so fit and healthy to just fall and have a heart attack, it's not something you'd expect from anybody let alone someone who's fit and healthy.
"Ideally we wanted to get him back here to get his pacemaker fitted but he's not allowed. It's too dangerous for him to fly. What they were saying over there is that if he was to get on the plane in the first place, there's a really high chance that once it takes off, the pressure will just make him have a heart attack. If he's got nothing there to make him survive then he wouldn't last. It's not worth the risk."
Gail owns Beautiful Bakes by Gail on York Road in Hartlepool, she says anyone who wishes to help with donations, even of toys to raffle off, can drop by.