I was 49 years old, at the gym 2-3 times a week and doing Pilates once a week... I was active and working...

I’m not honestly sure when my symptoms started, but the key symptoms were always diagnosed as allergy related.  The symptoms that I now no longer have are as follows:

• Inability to walk up an incline or do medium level cardio at the gym
• Pain in the right side of my neck
• Losing my voice at the drop of the hat
• Trouble sleeping and the new normal became functioning on 2.5 – 4 hours sleep a night
• Additional trouble sleeping due to a persistent cough, where I couldn’t breathe
• Following coughing which occurred both day and night I would dry vomit with a foam being the only output

A few years ago I was walking to catch the bus to work when I tripped on a raised section of path and fell. There was no one around and when I checked myself I discovered I had fractured fingers on my left hand.

I got myself back to my car and drove carefully to the Canberra hospital where I was triaged and the fingers straightened. I was then seen by the resident plastic surgeon and admitted to hospital for a washout and clean of my finger joints.

My heart journey with Dr Pathak started almost three years ago. Following a move to the South Coast of NSW and setting up a new home, I was finding my energy levels were way down and it was an effort to walk up hills that normally would not trouble me, without becoming breathless and dizzy. I’d been lucky enough to find an excellent GP in our new town who referred me to Dr Moysur Rahman a wonderful Canberra Cardiologist who regularly visits the far South Coast to see heart patients.   

Following a number of heart scans Dr Rahman scheduled exploratory procedures at National Capital in Canberra which identified several severe coronary blockages, whereupon stents were inserted.  It is at this point that I first met Dr Pathak who Dr Rahman called in to consult on issues discovered with my heart’s electrical circuitry!

To say I was alarmed at this turn of events is an understatement. Dr Pathak however explained precisely what my condition was, the immediate management and future surgical intervention that would be required and instilled in me (and my husband) an absolute faith that all will be well. Surgery was scheduled a few days later to insert a Pacemaker/Defibrillator. A light sedative was all that was required and though I was conscious and I was aware of what was happening there was no pain. I was discharged the following day and returned to the coast. 

My story began in the early afternoon of Saturday, November 24, 2018. That day I had my regular stall at the Moruya Country Market, and was packing my car ready to drive home.

A fellow stallholder came over and asked how my morning had been. Apparently I said that it had been a bit slow, and then I collapsed, turning blue. Poor Kenny (the stallholder) naturally got the shock of his life – he took a while to recover, and when I returned to the market a couple of months later, was always asking how I was!