IT has been estimated that 210 South Africans die from heart attacks on a daily basis. Heart disease and stroke remains as the country’s second biggest killers after HIV/AIDS, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa’s Pamela Naidoo.
uMhlanga’s Chris Ndlele was one of the hundreds of locals who unknowingly suffered a heart attack, but was lucky enough to have lived to tell the tale. Now, as the country celebrates Heart Awareness Month he hopes to educate others and encourage them to go and get tested.
Ndlele said his heart attack started as a sharp pain below his right shoulder blade. He later developed a tightness in his chest.
“Never, ever did I think it was a heart attack. I never thought that something like that would happen to me, especially since I eat healthy and do quite a lot of walking. I fobbed it off as indigestion or flu,” he said.
The 58-year-old first turned to a pharmacy for some over-the-counter medication, but the pharmacist encouraged him to seek medical attention.
The next day he went to a local hospital, where an electrocardiogram (ECG) test came back normal, and Ndlele was sent home with heartburn tablets.
However, the pain persisted. Two weeks later, the husband and father turned to his general practitioner, who performed an active ECG test. It proved that Ndlele was indeed suffering from a heart attack and he was rushed to the Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre (EHHC).
After over four weeks of ‘on-and-off-pain’ Ndlele, an operations manager underwent an angioplasty (stent procedure) to treat his heart attack.
“I urge people to treat their hearts at they would their car’s engine. When you sense that something is wrong take it to a professional so that the issue can be sorted out before your ‘vehicle breaks down’. Don’t leave it thinking that it might go away, because it will only get worse,” he said.
- There are several risk factors that could make a person more susceptible to heart disease, said cardiology specialist, Dr Shiraz Gafoor at the EHHC:
These include, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity.
Gafoor added that Indian men have a genetic predisposition to develop heart disease. “Even Indian men as young as 40 can develop heart disease,” he said.
