No one told me how ill I was
SARAH Miles was not told she had heart failure until she was handed a booklet about the condition two months later.
She had been diagnosed with type two diabetes in April 2013 and just nine months later had a major heart attack.
‘I had been asking for investigations and doctors diagnosed mild coronary heart disease and angina,’ the mother of two said. ‘But I was told it was of no concern.’
It was not until more than two months after the heart attack that Miss Miles, from Cheddar in Somerset, was told it had led to heart failure. ‘I found out I was in heart failure by accident really,’ said the 44-year-old. ‘It was about nine or ten weeks later and I was in cardiac rehab.
‘One of the nurses handed me a “Living with heart failure” booklet and it was only when I asked why I needed it that she realised no one had actually told me.
‘I was then rushed to an appointment with a heart failure nurse a week later.’