Why dad’s heart stopped seven times
GIn June 2020, Gary Cassidy drove himself to his local emergency department. As he called for help he lost consciousness because of heart failure. Cassidy had an undiagnosed genetic condition that would stop his heart six more times. Now recovering, the 55-year-old father of four and koro shares his story with Maryana Garcia for Men’s Health Week, hoping his experience will motivate more men to take their heart health seriously. ary “Gaz” Cassidy’s heart “I had cardiac ischemia. [They stopped seven times in told me] it was hereditary and had 2020. He has been fighting nothing to do with my lifestyle. The for his life ever since. artery that supplied the oxygen to The cause was an undiagnosed my body had narrowed by 95 per genetic kind of cardiac ischemia cent and it had probably been that in Cassidy’s case restricted narrowing for about 10 years.” the flow of oxygen through one Cassidy was flown to Waikato artery by about 95 per cent. Hospital where he had a stent
But until Cassidy lost consciousness installed to reopen the vital artery. in Whakata¯ne Hospital’s After the operation, Cassidy emergency department, he had no and his family thought the worst idea something was wrong. was over. “I got back home, rang
“I surfed every day. I did jujitsu. my boss and said I’d be back in a I was doing Crossfit, getting decent couple of weeks.” numbers and really enjoying Cassidy had no way of knowing it.” Then one day in June, just after the next Saturday would make his the first Covid-19 lockdown, he got first heart attack seem like a “monstrous surprise”. nothing. “My wife was lighting
He was just finishing his the fire in the lounge. I was regular after-work gym in bed and I sneezed.” session when he “felt a Cassidy does not remember bit funny in the any of what chest”. “My trainer happened next. asked me if I was all He was unconscious right and I said it when his was a bit sore. I was neighbour, a nurse, lying. performed chest
“A heart attack is compressions, while extremely painful. It his wife and daughter was the worst pain I’d looked on. ever felt in my life.” Cassidy did not feel his
As Cassidy headed home ribs and sternum break or across Whakata¯ne Bridge he could feel paramedics pushing against no longer ignore the pain in his the broken bones to continue CPR. chest and decided to drive himself He did not wake as a helicopter to the emergency department. airlifted him to Waikato Hospital
“I made it to the hospital, for the second time in a week. walked into ED. I started saying I Over the next 72 hours, needed help.” Cassidy didn’t get a Cassidy’s heart stopped five times. chance to finish his sentence. “I died five times.”
“That was it. I went down.” On his arrival at Waikato Hospital, He was later told he had suffered doctors discovered medication what was known as a used to treat the first heart widowmaker’s heart attack caused attack caused a large bleed in his by a previously undiagnosed genetic brain and emergency surgery was condition. needed. After the brain surgery,
Cassidy was in a drug-induced coma for weeks.
“It got to the point where they asked my wife to choose.
“She could leave me on life support and I’d be severely incapacitated for the rest of my life or they could take me off life support and see if I fought.
“My wife knows me very, very well. She told them to take me off life support . . . The first thing I really remember was her face.”
Cassidy left the hospital on July 27, 2020. He has not stopped fighting since. “[The first] seven months were hell. I couldn’t walk, talk or eat. I couldn’t do anything.”
But with support and treatment from University of Auckland professor Des Gorman, Dr Ted Clarke of the Auckland Heart Group and AUT exercise physiologist Matt Wood, Cassidy was able to make progress.
“I couldn’t walk 20 metres to the letterbox when I first got home.”
Cassidy made it back to the surf in December of that year.
“I took off on my first wave and my friends were there. It was like the whole beach lit up.
“I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”
However, the journey to recovery is not over.
“On the inside, I’m still broken. “The Gaz that existed before June 27 is dead and there’s a new Gary here now who’s very different.”
Cassidy has swapped his 180kg weights for an electric bike. He still goes surfing but his workouts are monitored via the Strava app by exercise physiologist Wood.
His new job, as a general manager in a civil construction company, has fewer hours. A defibrillator, which he calls his “little friend”, is implanted in his chest and monitored by Tauranga Hospital.
Cassidy has also received treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s been the toughest,” Cassidy said. “Life is different now. It’s like I’m learning to drive new wheels every day.
“I think I’ve only got one of these fights in me.”
Cassidy said he was “extremely lucky” to be alive and to have more time with his wife, children and mokopuna.
“If I had had my heart checked, none of this would have happened.
“I would love to see every man who turns 50 get a free echo cardiogram.”
Cassidy said he hoped men reading his story would get the necessary tests.
“Do it even though you’re fit and healthy. Do it so that your mokopuna won’t have to start calling anyone else their koro.”