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Heart failureArrow
Aged 51-60
Interview HF38  

Interview HF38

Age at Interview: 59
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 58
Background: Retired GP; married with 2 children.
Brief outline:Ischaemic heart disease diagnosed 2001. Heart bypass 2002. Heart failure 2002.


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He had bypass surgery to reduce his chances of sudden death.

 



Well there are a number of tests done, and the disease was found to be ischaemic heart disease... and amongst other findings was that I had some severely blocked major arteries in the heart. The muscle of my heart is badly damaged, and my specialists told me it was unlikely that surgery would actually improve the quality of the muscle that had already been damaged, but my chance of sudden death would be reduced they felt, so I went forward for a coronary artery bypass operation in January of 2002, a little uncertain as to whether it had been a sensible thing to do, because I think the evidence as to whether I should have been managed medically or go through the surgery were pretty finely balanced. I think my family were keen though that I had the surgery and it was important to me that everything was being demonstrated to be done that could be done.  

So I had the surgery, and then I hit the problems that nurses and doctors get when they're in the hands of their colleagues. My heart went into very strange rhythm problems, and because I'm a doctor as was well-known in my hospital, (though I'm a GP I was very well-known in my hospital), the junior doctors waited until the consultants were able to see me and sort out my problems. As I say there was quite a delay sometimes between me developing problems of my rhythm and somebody actually deciding what to do about it, and that is one of the disadvantages of being a doctor in that situation.  
Heart failure
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