Mum aged 47 who needed heart surgery
WHEN Esther Stanhope started suffering chest pains, the thought of a heart attack didn’t cross her mind.
‘You think someone having a heart attack would keel over,’ she said. ‘This was nothing like that – it was just a mild pressing on my chest and I couldn’t catch my breath.’
Mrs Stanhope, 47, a fit and busy married mother-of-two, who runs her own motivational speaking business, added: ‘I just didn’t think I was the type of person who would have a heart attack.’
It was several weeks before she called a doctor – in which time she travelled abroad, and even went to a gym class. Eventually, Mrs Stanhope started feeling seriously unwell as she walked near her London home. She was admitted to hospital in July 2017 and while there she suffered a minor stroke.
Mrs Stanhope had a stent – a tiny tube – inserted in a coronary artery, which opened up the blood vessel to remove a blockage near the heart. She has recovered well.