"Cardio Rehabilitation"

A week or so prior to Christmas I experienced total cardiac arrest. The warning signs were minimal. The only indication was a bout of heartburn a day before which lasted 15 or so minutes and the heartburn returning whilst doing a morning hike on the day I had a heart attack. Fortunately I made it home, however, it persisted and progressively got worse. I stopped what I was doing and thought to myself I should sit down for a moment to rest. My next memory was waking up on a gurney at the Victorian Heart Hospital with the medical staff explaining to me what just happened. The result was a stent in my left ventricle. I was so lucky, whilst I was unconscious, my wife had the presence of mind to call 000 and the courage to apply CPR until the paramedics arrived 6 or minutes after the call. My family now call me Mr 3% as that was chances of my survival.

As for the cardio rehab program, I believe it is well structured and run by consummate professionals that quite obviously enjoy their work that in turn made me and, in my opinion, other participates feel engaged and what we were doing as worthwhile. The only surprise was that only 30% of people offered to do rehabilitation take it up. The statistics speak for themselves in that participants of the program experience better outcomes than those who don't.

After easing back and listening to medical advice, now I am back at work and doing basically all activities I was doing prior to my episode, the only notable change is remembering to take the cocktail of pills every morning and evening.