And then, as a result of the operation for the aortic dissection…

Mm hmm.

…was that’ You had the stroke then?

The stroke.

Had they given you any warning that was a risk factor?

No. No. I was lying, on the, on the trolley from the ambulance and having had the tests done, the scans done and that, you see. And the nurse was explaining that you might need to stay in overnight. My wife had, had been called by that time, she was explaining about not getting any meals until midnight and I’d get out a day, you know, 24 hours later, kept in for observation. And it, it transpired that it were a phone call down, you know, ‘Get this guy transferred immediately, his aorta was leaking, and the blood from the heart instead of going back through the valves, back through the, you know, the valve, was leaking into my chest cavity. And I was taken to the [another city] to have an operation. Transferred for the emergency op and that was the Tuesday night and the next thing I remember was the Saturday morning.

Half past 8 on Wednesday morning it was about, when I got back into Intensive Care and it was explained to my wife and family that I might be left with brain damage, kidney damage, liver damage and a stroke. But that was never explained to me, which was maybe a good idea, you know but certainly my wife and family knew of the possible risks that I might be left with these things, including the stroke and it transpired luckily enough it was the stroke I was left with.

The stroke happened during the operation that you had but do you think theres, do you have any ideas about what the cause of your stroke was?

Well, I only go by what they were telling me and they told me that I lost an awful lot of blood during the operation, that I lost an enormous and that my blood pressure dropped right down and that they had to give me I think it was 3 bloods, 3 measures of blood and that same, now one thing I think about, some people say the stroke was going to be inevitable anyway whether, but if it was, I was in the right place when it happened because they were able to treat me at once. Whereas if I had a stroke like that without being in the hospital, I might not have come through but that’s the million dollar question.

Obviously you’re relatively young to have a stroke. What was your feelings about that?

It was just, well, it was my own fault because I used to be a smoker before I had the stroke. The doctor did say it was probably the smoking that was the main contributory factor so it was a bit of case of I wish I hadn’t started but, there we go, you can’t turn the clock back.

How do you feel about now that you were a smoker?

Well, I used to enjoy smoking. I knew there was risks involved. So it’s not like I was completely in the dark of the risks that I was taking because I knew I was taking risks at the time it seemed like I enjoyed it, so I smoked and that was that. You just take chances, I suppose, in life.

Thinking about the cause of your stroke, what do you think was the cause of your stroke?

Well, I personally I think I was, because I used to be an awful drinker and I think drink and smoking was the main cause.

And how do you feel about that now? You know, now it’s all happened?

Well, I don’t drink now except maybe every 3 months, 2 or 3 months I’ll maybe have a bottle of red wine. And use the whole lot that, that night, drink the bottle and finish it that night, and that’s it. I’ll not touch it again for about another 3 months. And the smoking, I don’t smoke at all now. And yet I was smoking 60 to 80 a day before I took this stroke.

So the blood pressure, was that the cause of the stroke?

That was the cause of the stroke. High blood pressure, high cholesterol in fact I had to have a management check-up annually for my health, for my job. And I had the management check-up, found that my blood pressure was through the roof, I take, I took 1 tablet, I was given a series of tablets to take. I took 1 tablet and the day after I’d taken that tablet, I had a stroke. I won’t blame it on the tablet obviously but and my blood pressure was too high, my cholesterol was too high, I was an accident waiting to happen. I mean my eating habits were terrible. I would come home from work, I would have a large lump of cheese when I came home, I’d have a bag of crisps, I’d then have my evening meal and I’d eat chocolates and biscuits during the evening.

They checked my blood pressure probably 2 or 3 times a day for those, first 2 weeks but they didn’t actually do anything to me at all. I think they, for the first, I’ve heard this since, the first couple of weeks, I think you have to sort of stabilise so they really just leave you. I didn’t have any medication at all. I had nothing. They just watched me, just kept a check and then I think I had a, I think before I left the hospital I had another scan. I suppose they just check to see how things are getting on up there, you know, whether theres any, any more bleeding or anything and, and then I was transferred to the rehabilitation unit and I was assessed by the doctor who’s in charge at the unit and that’s when I started taking blood pressure pills, I started losartan and then they were trying to stabilise my blood pressure because that was the cause of my stroke and obviously that is a problem. Maybe I’ve had for a long time, I don’t know because I never went to the doctor and I never had checks, so I didn’t know that my blood pressure was high because I didn’t have any symptoms so it could have been something that I’ve suffered with for many years and never found out about. So that obviously was a problem.

They were trying to get my blood pressure down and the dose of losartan that I was having obviously wasn’t really doing the trick so I went on to bendrofluazide, which is a water tablet as well as blood pressure and gradually, I mean, they checked me, they used to check my blood pressure all the time there in the rehab, I suppose because you’re having physio and you’re doing all sorts of things. So it was checked all the time. They did have problems with getting it down I know. It seemed to be a big problem and since I’ve, since I’ve been out of hospital my doctor has always said that it was my responsibility to keep my blood pressure checked and that’s something that I told in hospital, friends came to visit and I said, ‘Well, I’ve never had my blood pressure checked, I’ve never felt any need to have it done and I said, ‘That is something you should all go and do immediately, get a blood pressure check’ because it’s like a sort of silent killer. You don’t know, it just creeps up on you and if you don’t have checks, you don’t know, so I said and every, and everybody was going to rush home and go out and get blood pressure checks, which I just think if a very good thing. I think they, it’s something that should be sort of impressed on everyone.

The cause of the stroke was my fault. No doubt about that. It was my fault. As I say, I had a heart attack 12 years ago. I went to the doctors andI always felt doctors were, once they got hold of you, that was it, they never let you go. So any letters I got to come to the doctors for my, a test or whatever, I would ignore, you know, things like that. I wouldn’t go to the doctors if I had a heavy cold or a heavy flu or aches or pains. I would, my doctor would be the last person I would go and see. OK. I might be frightened of doctors but it was the last person, as long as I was able to get about, I was quite happy not to go to the doctors. They did send me letters to go to the Heart Clinic. I didn’t go because I was frightened again they might find something wrong. I might, stop me doing what I was doing. I wouldn’t go.

So I blame nobody but myself for my stroke, you know. I mean, I don’t say it’s anybody fault but my own. If my lifestyle had been better, I wouldn’t have had a stroke and, as I say, now I’m doing everything I possibly can to avoid further possible trouble. I go to the doctor every 3 months for check-ups, they take my blood pressure every week through the computer, keep eating my diet. I mean, my wife the chip pan’s out, the frying pan’s out, things like that, you know, and I take my tablets, no more smoking. My drinking, I don’t bother drinking any more. I would say if I didn’t get a pint of beer again, it wouldn’t bother me. Honestly. I like the company. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll go out sometimes on a Friday night with the lads and I like their company, I like the patter but the beer doesn’t, maybe 2 pints, that’s it. The beer doesn’t bother me but the lads are good. And my family have been, they’ve been really good.

WifeYeah. I think it is hard. Before we, I would tell the other people, before something happens, you have to be look after your health first, you know. You have to help, at least you have to go for the regular check-up. Like [my husbands] family, they all have this cholesterol problem or high blood pressure. It’s a family hereditary. My brother advises as a doctor, he advise every 6 month his family need to go for the check-up, every 6 month they have to have a blood pressure test and a cholesterol test as well. So something happen after that, we can’t bring him back as 100 per cent as we possible but we try to avoid other stroke. We can prevent but we can’t do anything about it, yeah, and we have to be, whoever look after the person need to be patient. Time is the healer, I think so.

I’ve had, I had wonderful treatment, I had an appointment then to go back to the Stroke Clinic, the Outpatient Stroke Clinic on March the 3rd and they explained that they thought the stroke was the result of a blood clot, that I’d got , they thought it was caused by an unusual heart beat and this can cause clots to go from your heart to your brain and they suggested I went on warfarin, you know, you don’t have to but, you know, the choice is yours but it would reduce by two thirds the chance of you having another stroke. So I thought I’d be mad not to.