“My heart attack taught me the importance of minimising stress”

DR AMITABH BHARDWAJ, 49 Doctor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology, Patna

Since his own father had suffered a heart attack at the age of 39, Dr Amitabh knew he had a risk factor for heart disease. Stress and work, however, kept him from adopting a lifestyle that was heart-friendly. “I was mostly glued to my desk and left the chair only to check on a patient and then immediately returned to it. I also had a lot of mental stress caused by my job and the usual business of life,” says the 49-year-old doctor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology in Patna.

His lifestyle caught up with him in May 2016. Dr Amitabh was 43 at the time and had gone to visit a colleague. The elevator was not working that day and he had to take the stairs to reach a sixth floor apartment. By the time he reached the fifth floor, he collapsed from breathlessness and severe chest pain. Residents of the building carried him to a bed and, realising that he was having a heart attack, Dr Amitabh immediately took a mononitrate tablet, a medicine commonly taken to relieve chest pain and unblock clogged arteries. “I was then rushed to the hospital where an angiography found blockage in my right artery. I had to go through an emergency angioplasty and was in the ICU for six days,” he says.

After a month’s rest, Dr Amitabh says he changed his approach to health and life completely. Even though seven tablets daily keep his heart going, he has also cut out potato, rice, sugar and fried food from his diet and switched to fruit and green vegetables with roti. He also walks every day. Most, importantly, he has minimised his stress. "I believe I am a more responsible person now—towards myself and others,” he says.