MY HEART STORY by Matthew McNeill

In October 1994 I was gasping in the Emergency Department at Woden Hospital with an erratic pulse of 220 and blood pressure 60/40. In October 2020 I am able to ride my ebike 30 kilometres three times a week at age sixty. This is my journey.

In 1994 I was a normal active 34 year old man - jogging, bushwalking and swimming, although to be fair I always carried extra weight. I contracted a virus that gave me a fever, then pneumonia, then acute viral myocarditis. I was cared for very well in Woden Hospital for ten days and was lucky to survive. I emerged very weak and scared about the future with my wife and 11 month old baby.

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My journey to participation in the SOLVE CRT Clinical Trial commenced in 2016 following a heart attack at home in Tura Beach in November.

Within days of this event, I was transferred by Ambulance from Bega Hospital to Canberra Hospital for an Angiogram procedure. The Angiogram detected three blockages, two of which had stents inserted on the same day, and another stent was inserted three weeks later.

I was referred by my GP to see the cardiologist in Canberra in June 2018. After having several tests including an Echocardiogram, he advised that he intended referring me to a colleague of his, who luckily for me was Dr Rajeev Pathak.