“No, Mr Hamilton, you are going in an ambulance!”
In October 2016, my wife and I flew to Abu Dhabi. I had another project to attend to, and my wife fancied some winter sunshine. We checked into our hotel at midnight local time. I did not have a good night’s sleep that night, however. I had a pain in my chest which had been there since I left England, and was getting considerably worse. I also seemed to have a strange sensation going up and down my left arm, which I knew was not normal or positive!
I woke up at 7 that morning and told my wife, “We need to go to the Etihad Medical Centre.”
‘When?’ my wife asked.
“Right now.”
As soon as we got in the taxi, the driver started to head the wrong way.
“What are you doing?!” I asked.
‘This is the fastest way, sir,’ he replied.
I was in a lot of pain now, so I was not my usual courteous self.
“The Medical Centre is over there! Turn round immediately and go the other way!”
The driver could sense the urgency, if not my frustration, and whipped the car round in a fantastic mid-traffic U-turn. Our course corrected, I quickly contacted a friend named Domnique, who lives in Abu Dhabi, and asked him to meet us at the medical centre and bring my new insurance card.
‘I’m on my way, David, I’ll be there in 10 minutes!’
When we pulled up to the centre, I gave the driver a tip, but not a big one.
I went straight to reception and informed the receptionist that I didn’t have an appointment, but I had severe chest pains and would like to see a doctor! She picked up the phone, and seconds later, a nurse emerged and ushered me into an examination room. She asked me to remove my shirt so she could wire me into an ECG machine. After the first reading, she called the doctor in to look at the results.
‘Do another test now,’ he said after a quick skim of my chart.
They did another test, looked at each other briefly and then the nurse said, ‘You need to go to the hospital right now, Mr Hamilton.’
“Oh, okay,” I said, a little shocked, “Let me get dressed and I’ll jump in a taxi and head over there.”
‘No, Mr Hamilton, you are going in an ambulance!’
Whilst they were getting me ready for transport, my good friend Dominique arrived with my insurance. Just in the nick of time!
We told him the situation, and he said he would follow us to the hospital in his car, whilst Jeannie, my wife, came with me in the ambulance. I was still connected to the ECG machine, and about two minutes before we reached the NMC Royal Hospital, it registered that I had suffered a heart attack. They had to tell me this as the pain I was in was so severe, I couldn’t feel a change in anything! The entire journey to the hospital felt like there was an anvil crushing my chest!
When we arrived, the consultant cardiologist was waiting for me with a team of 10. Even in my condition, this was an impressive sight and much-needed relief! The cardiologist reeled off a set of clear, concise instructions to his team, the first of which was to give me 300 mg of aspirin.
He had only just finished this order before he asked his nurse ‘Have you done it yet?!” This guy was in total control of the situation, and I knew I was in safe hands. I was then transferred from one stretcher to another and whisked into surgery. The surgery team was a well-oiled machine, and within minutes, I was hooked up to a series of leads and a camera was placed on my chest. The operation was carried out via a clamp being placed on my right wrist, preventing any undue blood loss. Just in front of the clamp was a screen that the consultant used to carry out the operation. For those of you fortunate enough not to have a heart attack, the operation involves a micro camera being inserted into your artery (in this case, my right wrist), and it travels to your heart to see what is causing the heart attack itself. I was completely unsedated at this point as there are no nerves in your arteries. I couldn’t feel a thing, but I could see what the consultant was seeing, and after a few minutes, I had to turn my head away as it was not an enjoyable show!
Once the probe had reached my heart, the consultant discovered that my left artery was blocked, the main central artery was clear, and the right artery was partially blocked. Once he identified the problem, he withdrew the camera and attached stents to the lens (tiny plastic tubes that allow blood to flow through the artery). He then reinserted and attached stents to my left artery. Once inserted, he removed the camera and tightened the clamp on my wrist to prevent further bleeding. I was then taken to the cardiac ICU unit in the hospital and placed in the ward for recovery.
This procedure was so quick and smooth that my wife was still filling out the insurance forms by the time I was out of surgery and recovering! My wife was both impressed and relieved that I was in the ICU waiting for her once she was done! The consultant came to check on me the following day. He told me that on Wednesday, he would do the other artery using the same procedure. It went just as smoothly, and I was discharged from NMC Royal on the Friday. Before I was discharged, the consultant told me that my heart muscles were already recovering because I had acted so quickly in coming to see him. I was not allowed to travel back home for two weeks due air pressure in the cabin. So, I was forced to sit by the pool in the Crown Plaza Hotel on Yas Island, what a bastard! Although I was given no guidance about what food I should or should not eat, I did ensure my meals were as healthy as they could be. I wasn’t in the mood for more fish and chips anyway by this point!
On my return to the UK, I made arrangements to see a cardiologist at Gatwick Park Hospital. The doctor’s biggest concern was what caused my heart attack. I took him the full report from the consultant in Abu Dhabi, along with the DVDs of the procedure. The doctor asked me the following questions,
‘Do you smoke?’
“No.”
‘Do you have diabetes?’
“No.”
‘Do you have high blood pressure?’
“No.”
‘Do you have high cholesterol?’
“No.”
He was quiet for about a minute and then asked about my family history.
I told him that three of my uncles had died in their mid-50s from heart problems.
‘I see,’ he said. ‘Where were you born?’
“Glasgow,” I said with the usual pride.
The doctor smiled. It seems the mystery was solved.
‘Mr Hamilton, your heart attack was down to two factors – Family genetics and your birth postcode!’
We both had a good laugh about this, more out of relief than anything. He then confirmed that the medication the consultant in Abu Dhabi had given me was spot on, and I was to make sure that I do not run out of these tablets, ever! He also confirmed after a quick examination that my heart muscles had almost fully recovered. As long as I kept taking the medication, he would not need to see me again.
He also mentioned that the work that had been done on me was of the highest quality he had ever seen, and I could not have been in a better place to have such an awful experience!
I had another trip to the UAE in March the following year, and I immediately arranged to see the consultant who saved my life. When I reached the NMC Royal, to my surprise, he recognised me straight away and shook my hand warmly. I brought him a gift, a Scottish Quaich, which is a traditional friendship cup going back centuries. On it was the engraving ‘Thank you for saving my life!’
This was probably the most turbulent moment in my career, but still not the worst! Other than the incredible professionalism of the consultant and his team, the main thing that saved me was my quick action. One of my good friends was not so lucky; he was given some warning signs but did not act as swiftly as he should have. And he passed away from a heart attack before he could retire; this was a few months before my attack. It was due to his untimely passing that prompted my quick response. There are many highly stressful work environments out there, and the Aviation industry is certainly one of them. It is demanding, it is fast-paced, and it is high-pressure, and all of that can take its toll whether we know it or not. So, my advice to anyone in this line of work or other stressful jobs is, if the signs are there, DON’T IGNORE THEM!
If you would like to know more, book our services, or see the DVD of my heart operation, then please get in touch via our contact page.
