Two heart attacks prompt turnaround
A near-fatal double heart attack was a wakeup call for a Palmerston North man, who was just 39 at the time.
Paul Snaith, of Ashhurst, was a heavy smoker and drinker with high cholesterol, but thought he was fit and used to laugh off smoking warnings. ‘‘I thought ‘not me’. How wrong I was.’’ Snaith, busy running his own landscaping, handyman and relief farm managers’ business, did not realise what was happening when he had his first attack in December 2012.
‘‘I was milking cows and had to shift the fence when I got a bad pain in my chest and felt puffed. I had been feeling heavy in the chest for a few days but I just thought it was another ‘smoker’s chest infection’.’’
Ignoring the pain, he drove into town with his children to get dinner.
‘‘I suddenly got hot sweats, a pain down my left arm and more chest pain. I remembered a conversation I had with my neighbour, who is a paramedic, about signs of a heart attack.’’
He drove home and went to see that neighbour, who immediately called an ambulance.
Snaith spent the weekend in hospital before being sent to Wellington for surgery to insert three stents to open blocked arteries.
While in recovery, he suffered another massive heart attack, and had another three stents inserted.
Snaith took four months off work to recover from his ordeal.
He now tries to eat healthily, has given up drinking and has been smokefree for more than two years.
‘‘The impact on my family was huge. My daughter, in particular, still worries about losing her dad.
‘‘I lost my dad to brain cancer when I was 8 and I grew up without a dad. I [almost] put my kids in the same position.’’
This month, thousands of volunteers will hit the streets nationwide to raise funds for the Heart Foundation’s annual appeal.
‘‘It is important to not ignore the signs. I was lucky to survive, so if I can tell other people about my experience and save a person’s life, it’s worth it,’’ Snaith said.
Heart Foundation medical director Gerry Devlin said more than 6000 people died from heart disease every year in New Zealand.
In Palmerston North, Dannevirke and Pahiatua, the Heart Foundation is holding its street appeal on February 10 and 11. The Feilding street appeal is on February 24 and 25.