I owe life to my dog – and heart research
ACAERNARFON woman is calling on people to support Wales’ heart charity – after twice suffering attacks in her 30s.
Sarah Tyler Davies wants to see more backing for research into heart conditions.
The 37 year-old had two cardiac arrests when she was just 30.
She was saved by her family dog Bonnie alerting her husband Aled, who performed CPR while waiting for the paramedics to arrive.
She decided to thank the charity whose research work aims to find better cures for heart conditions.
Sarah was born with Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), a congenital heart condition where the two main blood vessels leaving the heart – the pulmonary artery (which takes blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen) and the aorta (which takes blood from the heart to the body) – are swapped over.
As a child, Sarah travelled back and forth from Caernarfon to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.
At just nine years old, Sarah had a balloon fitted and then a stent at 14.
She suffered two cardiac arrests in 2011 and was fitted with a Pacemaker and ICD.
Thanks to donations, the BHF has been instrumental in pioneering medical breakthroughs that have allowed millions of hearts to continue beating.
Since the charity’s establishment in 1961, BHF researchers have contributed to the invention of the pacemaker, genetic testing methods to diagnose inherited heart conditions and have broken new ground with surgical tech- niques.But heart and circulatory disease still kills more than one in four people in the UK.
In Wales, 375,000 people live with the burden of these conditions and more than 9,000 lose their lives each year.
There is more work that must be done to help more people survive and to keep more families together.
Visit www.bhf.org.uk to make a difference today.
Sarah explains: “I’ve lived with a heart condition all my life, but having an ICD fitted after my cardiac arrest had huge implications for me and my family.
“I had to stop working for a year, and found it hard to leave the house in case the ICD went off again.
“I became anxious all the time, I lost all confidence and became house-bound.
“I couldn’t even drive to the shops. Aled had to take nine months off work to care for me and it was a difficult time for all the family.
“Luckily my cardiologist in Manchester referred me to a clinical psy- chologist to cope with my anxiety around my health which helped me think differently about why it had happened to me and helped me m process it. My illness has given me a new perspective on life.
“I still have ddifficulties with my memory. I still react to any alarms I hear and it’s made me wary, but I take each day a step at a time.
“Now I lead a full life. I have a tattoo of my heart beat and a tattoo of my dogs paw to remind me that life goes on.
“I want to say thank you to the British Heart Foundation.
“Its research has already helped save and improve my life and millions of others across the UK who face a daily battle with heart conditions.
“But there is still a long way to go and the need to find new ways to increase survival rates of people living with these conditions is more urgent than ever.” ● To make a donation or find out more about the BHF’s research, visit www.bhf. org.uk