Singer Mary Coughlan reveals worry of heart condition

Singer Mary Coughlan has spoken about setting an alarm at night to make sure she didn’t die before being diagnosed with a serious heart condition.

In September Ms Coughlan took to Facebook to apologise to fans for cancelling concerts.

She spoke on RTÉ radio about how she had an angioplasty operation, or stents placed in her heart, earlier this year.

Coughlan said she was very anxious about cancelling concerts having previously struggled with alcoholism.

“To cancel a gig for me was major. I don’t like to do it because people think I’m on the jar, but I haven’t drank in 24 years ,” she said.

“In the past six or nine months, I was walking down the prom in Bray which I can usually fly up and down but then it got to a point where I couldn’t run from one bench to another without sitting down,” she said.

Coughlan said she experienced chest pain and was told by a doctor that she had an underlying lung condition.

Chest pain

She was referred to a consultant in St Vincent’s hospital who diagnosed a serious heart condition.

“He told me I had a 99 per cent blockage in one artery and a 97 per cent blockage in the other artery . . . he told me part of my heart would have had little or no blood supply for years,” she said.

Coughlan said before the operation she experienced pains “which felt like an elephant standing on my chest”.

“I wear a fit bit sometimes and my heart rate on in went from 180 to 160 to 50. My heart rate went mental, the pain was unreal and I couldn’t breathe,” she said.

“I wouldn’t sleep on my left hand side because I could hear my heart pounding too loudly in my ear. I used to set my phone to wake me up every hour in case I died in the middle of the night ,” she said,

Coughlan said she was told by a doctor that she was suffering from anxiety and the doctor wanted to prescribe medication.

“I didn’t think my heart was bad because I was okay and my cholesterol was okay; it was perfect but my arteries had plaque,” she said.

The singer called for more preventative screening to prevent people having heart attacks or being diagnosed too late.