It all happened in just 37 minutes.
John was used to a fast-paced lifestyle, working as many as 60 hours a week and travelling back and forth across North America. In January 2016, he began to experience some alarming symptoms, including shortness of breath and tightness in his chest – but with no family history of heart disease, John chalked it up to the 125 nights he’d spent in hotels the year before, combined with a less-than-perfect diet and exercise regime.
Convinced that it was nothing serious, he paid a visit to his family doctor expecting a simple solution. His family doctor had different ideas, and recommended that John see a cardiac specialist. Fearing a blockage in one of his arteries, he was sent for an angiogram at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, a hospital home to the fourth largest Regional Cardiac Care Program in Ontario that serves more than 10,000 patients each year. Even then, John says he was in denial about the worst case scenario.
He was awake during the procedure that revealed a 95 per cent blockage in his LAD artery, and was told then and there that they would need to put a stent in immediately. 37 minutes after lying down on the table, the stent was in place and the dangerous blockage had been cleared.
“It was surreal,” says John. “But looking back, it was exceptional care. And it was exceptional care in my community. I don’t know if I could use the words ‘world-renowned’, but it sure felt like that.”
“It was surreal. But looking back, it was exceptional care. And it was exceptional care in my community. I don’t know if I could use the words ‘world-renowned’, but it sure felt like that.
John
Learn more information on urgent needs for Southlake’s Regional Cardiac Care Program.
