Heart attack jolts big change in diet
Heart Week has a special meaning for Wallacetown farmer Wayne Ferguson.
Volunteers with donation buckets are out on the streets of Invercargill today collecting during the Heart Foundation. But, to Mr Ferguson, it would have been just another appeal week – until he had a heart attack last March.
The sheep and beef farmer said there was no history of heart disease in his family. At 46, he had hardly experienced any illness during his lifetime.
‘‘I had hayfever; that’s about it.’’
His wife, Carla, who is a neonatal nurse at Southland Hospital, said she suspected he was having a heart attack not long after he had come in from being out on the farm 11 months ago.
‘‘At tea he said ‘no, no, no I’m not’,’’ she said.
When Mr Ferguson woke up in the middle of the night with pain in the centre of his chest, along his arm and in his jaw, she said he was still adamant that the pain wasn’t that bad; he was just uncomfortable. But she knew what she was seeing.
‘‘If I hadn’t been a nurse, I would have just left it until the morning.’’
When they arrived at the hospital, tests confirmed Mr Ferguson was suffering his first heart attack.
Tests taken also showed that his cholesterol was through the roof.
‘‘I knew that it had been high – but not that bad,’’ he said.
Mr Ferguson came close to becoming another statistic: 30 people a day die from cardiovascular disease in New Zealand, according to the Heart Foundation. Cardiovascular disease – heart, stroke and blood-vessel disease – is still the leading killer in this country, accounting for 40 per cent of deaths annually.
Nearly a year later, a change in eating habits has led to a significant weight loss for Mr Ferguson.
‘‘I was eating a lot of meat; takeaways once a week. A pie or a piece of cake during the day instead of breakfast.’’ All of that has changed. ‘‘I try to eat more fish. I’ve cut out the cheese and eat porridge for breakfast – lots of rabbit tucker.’’
Mrs Ferguson said the heart attack was a wake-up call. ‘‘We were very lucky.’’ Today’s Heart Foundation appeal raises money for research and health programmes to combat heart disease.
‘‘I was eating a lot of meat; takeaways once a week . . .’’ Wayne Ferguson